The Batavia Spectator

By Aydan Cantu With Oscar season right around the corner, Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet has been one of the most discussed films this year. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Maggie O’Farrell (who co-wrote the film’s screenplay with Zhao) that tells a fictionalized account of the death of Hamnet Shakespeare […]

By Aydan Cantu Jim Jarmusch is one of cinema’s most respected auteurs today. Yet, despite an acclaimed body of work, the only film of his I’ve seen is Night on Earth (1992). His latest feature, Father Mother Sister Brother is his first since 2019’s The Dead Don’t Die, and won the Golden Lion at last […]

By Aydan Cantu At the 2025 Academy Awards, Timothée Chalamet received his second nomination in the Best Actor category for his remarkable turn as Bob Dylan in James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown. Although he wasn’t the predicted front-runner, Chalamet gained momentum in the leading months to the ceremony, going so far as to winning the […]

By Aydan Cantu Since its premiere at the Venice Film Festival, Park Chan-Wook’s No Other Choice has kept garnering more and more critical acclaim. The film, an adaptation of Donald E. Westlake’s The Axe, follows Yoo Man-soo (Lee Byung-hun), a veteran paper mill manager who descends into violence in a desperate bid to reclaim his […]

By Aydan Cantu If you’re someone who knows something about movies, chances are you have heard the name Paul Thomas Anderson—or his nickname PTA—before. Along with Quentin Tarantino, Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach, and Christopher Nolan, Anderson is one of the best filmmakers of his generation. Throughout his three decade career, the filmmaker has delivered countless […]

By Aydan Cantu From its marketing and cast interviews, Caught Stealing was talked to be a film in tone with Martin Scorsese’s After Hours (which also stars Griffin Dunne, no doubt an homage), yet while Scorsese’s masterpiece is an absurd comedy, Aronofsky’s film is a tone-deaf picture that comes off more insensitive than funny. Caught […]

By Aydan Cantu Two months after starring in the A24-Hugh Grant-led thriller, Heretic, actress Sophie Thatcher leads her film, Companion, which opened in theaters on January 31. The film follows Iris (Thatcher) and her boyfriend, Josh (Jack Quaid) on a weekend getaway at a remote cabin, when things go wrong. The best thing about this […]

By Aydan Cantu Alongside Jordan Peele and Ari Aster, Robert Eggers is one of the most acclaimed horror filmmakers today. His latest film, Nosferatu, an adaptation of the 1922 silent film directed by F.W. Murnau, houses a packed cast with the likes of Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult, Bill Skarsgård, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin, Ralph Ineson, […]

By Aydan Cantu  Five years after its predecessor took the world by storm, does Joker: Folie à Deux live up to its expectations? Many will tell you no, but I say yes! When the first film was released, I was blown away by it. It was unlike any movie I’d seen before and the same […]

By Trey Hickman The Batavia Boys Lacrosse team is currently 2-5 having their five losses against Lyons Township, Wheaton North, Lock Lort, South Elgin, and Wheaton-Warrenville South. The team’s two wins come from Marmion and Crystal Lake South.  The top contributors on this team include the players with the highest amount of goals on the […]