post

Lifeless ‘GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE’ Lacks Spirit 

There are times as a film critic that I wonder why I allocate my spare time to the watching and writing about movies. This is one such occasion. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is a profoundly bad film, one that seems to be actively sucking the very lifeblood out of the movie industry with its lazy indifference, indifferent storytelling, and filmmaking incompetence. In a way, it’s actually more interesting as a cultural microcosm of the horrors of modern franchise filmmaking writ large. It exists in a world of franchise as mandated IP flexing. Strictly a means to an end. Ostensibly the opposite of a write-off but with the same underlying purpose. Done because it must be done to preserve intellectual property ownership, not because there is any purpose, vision, or passion involved. Read More

post

Sundance ’22: Losing Life’s Popularity Contest With ‘WHEN YOU FINISH SAVING THE WORLD’  

Jesse Eisenberg‘s debut feature When You Finish Saving the World is a cantankerous study of an insufferable family trying – and failing – to live together peacefully. Ziggy (Finn Wolfhard) is pouty and dense. Evelyn (Julianne Moore) is self-important and overbearing. He livestreams his folksy music to an eclectic mix of international audience members for crypto tips. She (admirably) runs a women’s shelter. But no one at her workplace really likes her. And no one at Ziggy’s school really likes him either. Neither get enough praise in their estimation. Both are an absolute drag to be around. Read More

post

‘GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE’ Goes Full Amblin But Remains Haunted by Mediocrity 

For some inexplicable reason, Ghostbusters just won’t stay dead. The original was a major hit at the summer ’84 box office and earned both critical and fan affection but in the nearly-four decades years since its release, there has been a not-as-well-received sequel, one season of a kids animated series, a failed video game, and two attempts at a reboot/sequel. None of them really connected with the rapidly aging fan base and all have been seen as a disappointing addendum to the popular supernatural comedy that your dad loved so much. Read More

post

Out in Theaters: ‘IT’

Growing up in Maine, I’ve lived in the land of Steven King’s inspiration. I’ve suffered the bone-chattering winters. Lurked the dense, immutable forests, always so convincingly haunted whenever they needed to be. I’ve challenged forbidden historic landmarks in the twilight hours, suspecting authority, or something more sinister, at every dark fated turn. As a boy, I chomped through King’s preternatural catalogue of horror novels, perhaps because of my budding adoration of the genre, perhaps because he was quite simply the most famous guy from Maine I knew of. I’d taken down “The Shining”, “Carrie”, “Misery”, “The Green Mile”, “The Dead Zone”, “Cujo”, “The Mist”, “Needful Things”, “Pet Sematary”, “Christine”, “Firestarter”, “The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon”, “Gerald’s Game”, and “Thinner” by the time I was 12. But nothing in King’s oeuvre haunted me more than his 1986 classic “It”. That shit had me shivering in my rain boats.  Read More