It’s not that THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER is unwatchable. Quite the contrary. The special effects are stupendously unrestrained. The story is adorable, leaning towards a good-natured spoof of superhero movies as practiced in the 2020s. The performances can’t be faulted, even if Christian Bale as the god-hating ex-acolyte out for revenge is far darker, and… Read More »
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPEN
In THE PHANTOM OF THE OPEN, we see the audacity of innocence. Based on the life, and wholly unlikely exploits, of Maurice Flitcroft, a name that all but demands to have a shaggy-dog story attached to it, it reveals how a man with no formal training in golf found himself competing at the British Open,… Read More »
CRIMES OF THE FUTURE
Click here for the flashback interview with David Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen for EASTERN PROMISES. With CRIMES OF THE FUTURE, David Cronenberg once again presents us with a dystopian future, or is it an alternate present, that is alien and yet, somehow, instantly familiar. It’s not just the machines that mimic the skeletal structures of… Read More »
DR. STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS
With DR. STRANGE IN THE MULITVERSE OF MADNESS, we are gifted with a thimbleful of plot in a vast expanse of cinematic ocean. This being yet another piece of the equally vast Marvel Universe, the story is obliged to take its hero, Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), from Point A to Point B in order to… Read More »
EMERGENCY
EMERGENCY starts with Sean (RJ Cyler) and Kunle (Donald Elise Watkins) attending a class called Blasphemy and Taboos, taught by a perky British woman who, after reminding her students that their syllabus contained a trigger warning about this class, confronts them with the n-word. Not just projecting it onto the classroom screen in huge letters,… Read More »
ON THE COUNT OF THREE
Jerrod Carmichal is a quietly compelling presence in his directorial debut, ON THE COUNT OF THREE. As Val, half of a suicidal duo out to make the last day of their lives count for something, or at least to make it a day less depressing than the ones that have so far rounded out their… Read More »
X
What we have here with X is a good, old-fashioned slice-’em-up homage to 1970s grindhouse flicks. Specifically, 1979, wherein we find Maxine (Mia Goth), she of the constellation of a birthmark over one eye, determined to escape the drab life of a stripper in the even drabber boondocks of Texas. Thanks to her boyfriend Wayne… Read More »
CYRANO
Joe Wright has a genius for taking the stories we know all too well and making them feel like a delightful new discovery. Seek no further than his take on ANNA KARENINA (interview here), which, pace fans of Garbo and Leigh, is my favorite adaptation of Tolstoy’s classic. Is it absolutely true to the source… Read More »
UNCHARTED
UNCHARTED is like the first pitch meeting to potential financiers, which is odd since it’s been in development for almost a decade. What we have here is the broad outline of a plot full of twists, turns, and aerial stunts. What we don’t have is any sense of order or logic, even that of the… Read More »
SCREAM
In a film that is dedicated to self-reference and meta self-awareness, my favorite snippet of SCREAM is a throwaway reference to “that guy who directed KNIVES OUT”. That, of course, is Rian Johnson, who had previously worked on THE LAST JEDI, thereby drawing the wrath of a section of Star Wars fans of all persuasions,… Read More »
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