“Sometimes what doesn’t kill you doesn’t make you stronger. Sometimes, it just should have killed you.” Will Ferrell wrote that eleven years ago, and while it was about President George W. Bush at the time, they may as well have been Uncharted, which started its long, tortuous assent to the big screen at the same …
Movie Review
The meet-cute has been a staple of romantic comedy since at least Clara Bow bumped into Antonio Moreno. After 100 years of cinema, though, enough variations of it have been tried that even the many worlds map of the romcom multiverse has become a flat circle. The options for most filmmakers now are either to …
Everything about Hercule Poirot is fake. That is a good thing. It’s true of the man — from the mustache he wears but lies about why to his reasons for doing things — and true of his latest celluloid adventure. Kenneth Branagh‘s adaptation of Death on the Nile puts on as much of a false …
As one does not simply walk into Mordor, one does not simply review Jackass Forever without context. These movies and television shows are the definition of “Not for everyone.” If there’s any story arc that links these films, it’s all that has happened offscreen. One of the members has passed away. Another was involved with …
While on a routine Space Shuttle mission in 2011, NASA astronauts Jocinda Fowl and Brian Harper experience a disaster that kills one of their crewmembers and disables their spacecraft. Amidst the chaos, Harper is the only one to see the cause – a strange alien cloud. After destroying their shuttle, the alien entity heads for …
Let’s start with the bad stuff first: The 355 is a terrible movie that fails on almost every level. Let’s continue with the worst stuff: It didn’t have to be. Conceptually, The 355 is perfectly sound, if extremely conventional. It’s in the execution that it falls apart: an action film with bad action, inert editing, …
So what, exactly, is The Matrix Resurrections? Is it a reboot, a remake, or a sequel? Well, it’s all three. After almost twenty years, we get both a progression of the story from The Matrix Revolutions and a new beginning of sorts, where everything gets wiped clean. It’s both a continuation and a commentary – …
The third film tends to be tough for Spider-Man. The third Sam Raimi film suffered from competing priorities between filmmaker and producers, resulting in multiple entries worth of story being crammed into one movie. The third Marc Webb Spider-Man topped that by never even happening after making the same mistake as the Raimi series, just …
After the events of Spider-Man: Far From Home, Peter Parker finds himself dealing with the fallout of his secret identity being revealed to the world by J. Jonah Jameson and Mysterio. The press harasses him. The FBI begins investigating him. The public starts taking sides on whether he is a murderer or a hero. Teachers …
Like a fly in amber or one of the doomed creatures in the formaldehyde jars in Clem’s (Willem Dafoe) cabinet of curiosities, the sepia tones of Nightmare Alley force us to examine, dispassionately, the destruction of a man. Like the original 1947 film, we watch the spiritual and moral decay spread across the face of …
West Side Story is spectacular. Steven Spielberg’s long-awaited musical is one of his finest films, and with a career like Spielberg’s, that is saying something. It all feels so effortless – the dazzling dance sequences, the passionate vocal performances from the actors, the marvelous camerawork from Janusz Kaminski, and through it all, you can feel …
As the young ones say, Licorice Pizza is a mood. Another phrase that applies: your mileage may vary. For some, especially those from the Valley area of Los Angeles, Licorice Pizza will be a warm blanket of nostalgia, evocative of its time and place, full of interesting but relatable characters from a specific era (in …
There is a scene in House of Gucci where Patrizia Reggiani-Gucci (Lady Gaga) comes across a back alley vendor selling fake Gucci bags to unsuspecting housewives on the cheap. Married to Mauricio Gucci (Adam Driver), Patrizia has decided to take an active role in the Gucci family company to the consternation of the rest of …
Once upon a time, the format for Disney Animation was simple and unchanging – take a well-known fable or children’s story, add high-level ballads and funny animal or magic characters, mix thoroughly, and produce fun kids’ perennials. In reality, it missed almost as often as it hit, but years of VCR babysitting and endless home …
It seems like Jason Reitman was born to direct Ghostbusters: Afterlife. After all, his father directed the original film. Jason is in Ghostbusters 2. Ghostbusters has been a part of his life for practically all his life. He has memories of being on set for the first film, watching his father help create an iconic …
When it comes to their respective cinematic universes, the primary difference between DC and Marvel has been this: DC paints in broad strokes of mythic legends and stories in a contemporary setting. Marvel keeps things mostly focusing on character. Of course, both switch it up from time to time, but that’s been the general dynamic, …
With one or two really, really well-known exceptions, it’s become the kiss of death for a fantasy sci-fi epic to open with a scroll of exposition. Not because it presages the filmmaker’s concerns that audiences won’t understand enough of the nuances of the backstory to engage with the prime narrative properly. But because the opening …
Dune (or Dune Part One as the opening credits assure us) is a towering cinematic achievement, with stunning visuals, confident direction, impressive art and sound design, a score that blasts you through the theater (or living room) wall, and performances that pull directly from Frank Herbert’s epic novel. However, Dune is also half a movie. …
The Last Duel is a film full of contradictions; indeed, the contradictions are the point. This is not the first time this kind of subject matter has been handled this way, with multiple perspectives and the ephemeral nature of truth. This isn’t even Ridley Scott’s first foray into French dueling stories; his first film, The …
Maria (Noomi Rapace) and Ingvar (Hilmir Snær Guðnason) are husband and wife who farm and raise sheep in Iceland. They seem to live a contented life, in the middle of nowhere where half the year the sun is up at night. One day, Maria and Ingvar deliver a lamb from an expecting sheep, look at …