Oeuvre: David Cronenberg: A History of Violence
As a director, David Cronenberg has a history with violence. Whether it’s the violence we do to one another or violence committed against oneself, the Canadian director has long examined its effects on...
View ArticleBillie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry
Excepting the final 15 minutes, which acknowledge a lot of first accomplishments for its subject, Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry unexpectedly and rather inexplicably reminds of a eulogy for...
View ArticleThe Father
Deep-diving into dementia surely isn’t anyone’s idea of a good time — it’s an unusual experience in the dramatic arts in that it’s even more upsetting when it’s done well. The Father, Florian Zeller...
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Rediscover: Town Bloody Hall
Though no one truly bleeds in Town Bloody Hall, Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker’s 1979 documentary, there are some wicked barbs thrown about as its subjects go for the jugular. The chronicle of a...
View ArticleCrisis
Admirably, writer-director Nicholas Jarecki weaves three (and eventually, following a merger of sorts, two) stories set against the backdrop of the ongoing opioid crisis. Frustratingly, the film,...
View ArticleNight of the Kings
Night of the Kings opens with an establishing shot of a concrete fortress in the middle of the jungle, the skyline of Abidjan — one of West Africa’s most massive urban agglomerations — just barely...
View ArticleHoly Hell! The Wedding Planner Turns 20
It’s often said that fashion and the popular culture influenced by it exist on a 20-year scale, whereby the clothes we wore and media we consumed two decades ago suddenly begin to come back in style....
View ArticleOeuvre: David Cronenberg: Eastern Promises
At the time of its release, Eastern Promises seemed like a simple enough follow-up to David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence. Star Viggo Mortensen was back in the fold. The return to the world of...
View ArticleComing 2 America
In times like these, it’s nice to be able to laugh. And the long-awaited, arguably unnecessary sequel to 1988’s Coming to America has plenty of moments worth chuckling over. Some even generate a hearty...
View ArticleThe Truffle Hunters
Sitting indoors, sheltered from the elements, connected to every corner of the planet via the internet, we are a digital people. What are the experiences we seek out in this virtual existence? They’re...
View ArticleChaos Walking
How quickly can a gimmicky premise become almost insufferably annoying? This is the question that haunts screenwriters Patrick Ness and Christopher Ford in Chaos Walking, a sci-fi...
View ArticleRediscover: SPL2: A Time for Consequences
What makes a martial arts movie a masterpiece? Over the past few years, I’ve seen dozens of decent ones, myriad good and great ones, many entries that are masterclasses in specific aspects but falter...
View ArticlePixie
Pixie exists to further its own gimmick. There’s really no other way to put the experience of watching director Barnaby Thompson’s film, which weaves a convoluted tale involving some petty drug...
View ArticleStray
If it weren’t for the example of several recent animal documentaries, Stray, the debut feature from director Elizabeth Lo, might be a revelation. The film follows three dogs as they wander through the...
View ArticleThe Winter Lake
The Winter Lake is a straightforward, languidly paced thriller of imperfect people meeting during a transitional moment for all four of them. The titular body of water is a turlough—a seasonal lake...
View ArticleHoly Hell! Ghost World Turns 20
Every generation gets the mean girls they deserve, and few have been meaner (or funnier) than the duo at the heart of the mordant satire Ghost World, released in the fall of 2001. Directed by Terry...
View ArticleCosmic Sin
The real sin with a scrappy mess like Cosmic Sin is not that it’s bad, but that it isn’t more fun to watch. Even the silliest action blowouts (looking at you, John Wick and Boss Level) can be hugely...
View ArticleOeuvre: David Cronenberg: A Dangerous Method
Following the polished genre exercise of Eastern Promises, David Cronenberg aimed his gaze in the polar opposite direction: the tedious artistic pastime known as the historical costume drama. But the...
View ArticleCome True
The subtle art of misdirection is integral to the horror genre. It’s exceedingly tough to wrest fear out of what is already familiar, so horror filmmakers tend to design environments of unfamiliarity...
View ArticleDark Web: Cicada 3301
Believe it or not, the framing events of Dark Web: Cicada 3301 have a basis in reality. The subtitle was inspired by the activities of a group called Cicada 3301 that would post elaborate puzzles on...
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