Film Reviews, Interviews and Articles
“What’s the opposite of a fiancée?” Scarlett Johansson’s Nicole muses, trying to find the right word to describe her soon-to-be ex-husband Charlie (Adam Driver). She doesn’t really want to still call him her husband, because that ship has clearly sailed. But nor is he an ex yet either. There’s a lack of finality to their relationship. Unsigned paperwork. Unfought legal battles. Unclaimed wreckage from what was once a marriage. Read More
39 years ago, Stanley Kubrick played a game of chicken with Stephen King’s novel “The Shining”, redefining the term “loose adaptation” as he bent the source material to his will. In the process, Kubrick created not just one of the greatest horror films of all time but one of the very best films regardless of genre. Ever an industry maverick, Kubrick swung an axe at King’s IP (“Here’s Johnny” indeed), hacking the story into one more befitting the film medium and his own vision. This meant stripping away the more abject supernatural horrors (though there’s no shortage of rotting bathers and ghost furry lifestylers) and replacing them Jack Torrence’s descent into catacombs of his own inner madness. Read More
As seemingly improbable as Schindler‘s List with an added laugh track or Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom subbing in Hitler Youth for Boy Scouts, Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit’s very premise is a bold thought experiment: how do you make modern audiences (notoriously sensitive modern audiences, that is) comfortable laughing at WWII-era Nazism? How do you get them to sympathize with literal Nazi characters? And, maybe most importantly, how do you do all this without getting the endorsement of literal modern-day Nazis? Read More
After preventing Judgement Day, Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) has kept herself sharp throughout the years. Hunting the spare Terminator already en-route to various time periods from a defeated SkyNet program( that no longer exists) (it’s less complicated than that seems, I promise)) has become Sarah’s all-consuming purpose since she saved the world, but lost her son John Connor in the process, so many years ago. Her tinfoil hat lifestyle is thrown its biggest challenge in decades when two denuded future beings arrive in shimmering blue balls; one an enhanced human named Grace (Mackenzie Davis), the other a highly advanced Terminator, a Legion Rev-9 series played by Gabriel Luna. Read More
What could have and should have been a lean mean socially-relevant cop thriller turns to indulgent putty in the hands of director Deon Taylor (The Intruder, Meet the Blacks.) Black and Blue hangs on but a single idea, one that James Moses Black’s Officer Brown conveys to his fellow pigmented protagonist Alicia West (Naomie Harris) early on in the film, “You’re not black anymore. You’re blue.” Meaning, the rookie cop should now identify as police, not African-American, because that is how the world sees her now. In the world Taylor creates, black and blue don’t mix. Read More
Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe have done it. They have made the weirdest, most inexplicable, indescribable film of 2019. And I kinda love it. The pair write, direct, and star in Greener Grass, a feature-length adaptation of their 2015 of the same name, fulfilling a hole in the market for those craving a mighty scoop of WTF in with their satirical entertainment. The result is like if Yorgos Lanthimos directed an episode of Sesame Street, a highly-mannered bizarro world where citizens battle self-preservation instincts in order to appease faux-friendly neighbors. Read More
Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), Wichita (Emma Stone), and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) have taken up residence in the White House to brave the lingering zombie apocalypse. Their days spent coiled like dragons atop stockpiles of munitions and supplies have led to a general sense of longing. For Tallahassee, it’s the road that’s calling. Witchita meanwhile can’t calm her fear of committment while Little Rock longs for a romantic companion of her own. It’s only the group nerd Columbus who seems to enjoy a sense of post-apocalyptic calm, probably because the apocalypse has afforded him the impossible scenario of hooking up with Emma Stone. When the ladies unexpectedly pack up and head out one night, Tallahassee and Columbus meet a new tagalong in Madison (Zoey Deutch) and brave the great zombieland unknown to reunite the group. Read More
Dolemite is My Name, or How Eddie Murphy Got His Groove Back, is one of those movies about a bunch of guys who don’t know how to make a movie making a movie. Craig Brewer’s biopic of industrious comedian-turned-actor/producer Rudy Ray Moore shares similar broad strokes to James Franco’s The Disaster Artist in that capacity but the flavor here is unmistakably ebony. Also, there is much clearer deference to the film’s subject and his undeniable talents. Read More
All Will Smith’s Henry Brogan wants is to retire in Ang Lee’s muddled faux-cerebral actioner Gemini Man but perhaps it’s the once-celebrated director who should be submitting his resignation instead. The two-time Oscar winner is nearly unrecognizable in his new role as a beta-James Cameron techno-chaser, confusing higher frame rates, CGI Frankenstein creations, and 4k projection for the inklings of a passable story. But even if you remove the muddled slop-fest that is Gemini Man’s narrative out of the equation, you’re left with jumbled CGI-heavy action scenes and distinctly unsophisticated moral imperatives. Read More
For a man 59-years of age with well over 100 feature films under his belt, Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike shows no signs of slowing down. The prolific auteur has dabbled in everything from sweeping historical epics (13 Assassins) to slow-burn horror showstoppers (Audition) to schlocky gangster yarns (Ichi the Killer) to gory Samurai adventure flicks (Blade of the Immortal) to child-centric ninja fare (Ninja Kids!!!) with literal countless smaller projects filling in the gaps between those more high-profile pictures that end up playing in theaters internationally. With the director often making upwards of five, six, or seven films a year, it’s nothing short of incredible that he’s able to craft something as wildly enjoyable, energetic, and giddy as his most recent film, First Love, and yet here we are. Read More