Ana Lily Amirpour’s debut film, A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, was an “Iranian vampire spaghetti Western” that earned well-deserved critical acclaim and a devoted fanbase thanks to its memorable black-and-white visuals that walked the line between beauty and horror.  Amirpour’s second film, The Bad Batch, is nowhere near as good. As the Bad Batch opens, we see a group of prisoners dubbed “the bad batch” being tattooed behind their ears with prisoner numbers as other inmates are warned against them. Then, we see our lead...

People call it “box office royalty” and say it “breaks the glass ceiling” for women directors. Viewers say it “moved them to tears." Warner Bros.' Wonder Woman grossed over $435.2 million worldwide and received international acclaim from critics across the board. Jessica Bennett wrote in the New York Times, “there was something deeply visceral about it: a depiction of a hero we never knew we needed, a hero whose gender was everything but also nothing.” The film is a powerful clarion call for our times, but...

Fans know Kumail Nanjiani as one of the stars of Silicon Valley, a frequent scene-stealer in Portlandia, and a standup comic - but the Big Sick, which Nanjiani both co-wrote and starred in, shows a new side to the comedian. (Which is not to say the film isn’t funny, because it definitely is.) Nanjiani co-wrote the Big Sick with his wife Emily V. Gordon, a journalist (and former BUST contributor!), TV writer, and author of SuperYou: Release Your Inner Superhero. The film, directed by Michael Showalter,...

When Everything, Everything was released last month, Stella Meghie became the only black woman to helm a wide-release film in 2017, and one of just 16 women to helm a studio-backed film this year, per IndieWire. Based on the YA novel by Nicola Yoon, Everything, Everything is a visually stunning teen romantic drama with a unique take on the genre. Amandla Stenberg stars as Maddy, a girl who cannot leave her house because she has a rare genetic disorder, SCID - but when she falls...

June has us feeling end-of-school and summer vacation vibes, so we turn to vintage Jennifer Grey as muse. From adorably innocent to calculating and ruthless, the moods of Baby Houseman & Jeanie Bueller can be applied to summer joy and angst. Here are some gifs to use in some likely summer scenarios, so that you too can have the time of your life. When someone reminds you it’s only Monday Out with your girl and dude in the corner is being a creeper. After that kale salad successfully...

MAUDIEDirected by Aisling WalshOut June 16 Maude Lewis was a beloved Canadian folk artist who is certainly a worthy subject for a biopic, but is Maudie worthy of her? The vagueness with which director Aisling Walsh drops viewers into Lewis’ world raises many questions. Why is Lewis’ severe rheumatoid arthritis explained away as her being “born funny”? Why did her family reject her? And most importantly, why did this intelligent, willful woman enter into a horrible marriage to a monosyllabic fishmonger? The film’s saving grace, however,...

The Mummy has a 21% on Rotten Tomatoes, and the dismal rating (that’s been steadily declining) is well-deserved - the plot was mindless, the characters lacked depth, and the overall film was incoherently busy. It’s the first in the “Dark Universe” series, eight films that will interweave the stories of classic Universal monsters. Cool concept, and no doubt the special effects are impressive (expensive), but the initial installation was utterly uninspiring. Tom Cruise plays Nick Morton, a mischievous relics thief with military expertise and a...

Megan Leavey Directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite In Theaters June 9 Gabriela Cowperthwaite follows up her controversial SeaWorld documentary Blackfish with something completely different - the heartwarming story of a girl and her dog. Though based on a true story, Megan Leavey is Cowperthwaite's first film that is not a documentary. Viewers follow Megan (Kate Mara), a young woman who joins the Marines to get away from her troubled past. After she's assigned to clean up the combat dogs' poop as a punishment, she commits herself wholeheartedly to the goal...

I always found myself relating a lot to Carrie Pilby when I first read the book.That’s not a “backdoor brag,” to quote 30 Rock. Unlike Carrie, I didn’t graduate Harvard at eighteen, I don’t have a photographic memory, and I’m certainly not a genius. But Carrie’s own feelings of isolation and discomfort with what she perceives as the sex-obsessed adult world absolutely resonated with me in my early teen years. At the time when I read the original Caren Lissner novel, I was probably convinced...

To celebrate the new movie Wonder Woman, BUST writer Isabel Sophie Dieppa put together an interactive, digital map of some of her favorite comic books about our favorite superheroine. Check it out:         Isabel Dieppa is a writer and actor. She is a part of the performance duo Of This World in Chicago, IL. Her interests lie in science, art, and history. Past writing includes interning for the Chicago Field Museum ECCO program, the national theater blog HOWLROUND, music reviews for UR Chicago, and in a former life was...