Dune
The best science fiction uses semi-plausible ideas and imagery to ask the big questions, or get us caring about its characters. The recent films from Denis Villeneuve have internalized that idea:...
View ArticleWarning
Look, we all love a good end-of-the-world story, but in order for these to work, viewers have to be convinced that the world is actually, uh, ending. Otherwise, you’re left trying to understand why...
View ArticleBroadcast Signal Intrusion
In 1987, Chicago television was hijacked by a pirate broadcast. A few hours later, it happened again. An individual wearing a Max Headroom mask ranted enigmatically amid the distorted background; to...
View ArticleRediscover: Wake in Fright
The first shot of Ted Kotcheff’s Wake in Fright is a 360-degree panorama of the remote Outback hamlet of Tiboonda, the camera swiveling away and back to the starting point of a small riser platform...
View ArticleMinyan
Eric Steel’s Minyan is a rarity among recent big-screen depictions of Judaism. The film focuses not so much on the easily-stereotyped Hasidic enclaves in places like Borough Park or Monsey or Tel Aviv,...
View ArticlePassing
The first shot of Rebecca Hall’s Passing, an adaptation of Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel, slowly comes into focus to reveal a feet-level shot of a New York City street as two white women bustle about...
View ArticleAt the Ready
One might not be aware that some schools across the nation ― in the case of this film’s subject, in Texas ― host law enforcement training for those on the precipice of graduation. Over the course of a...
View ArticleFrom the Vaults of Streaming Hell: Return of the Living Dead III
Do viewers of a flick called Return of the Living Dead III really need to be briefed on how zombies work? Yet there it is, just over a half-hour into the film: an army officer laying down the...
View ArticleOeuvre: Leon Morin, Priest
It’s a shame that when we think of war films, our minds instantly gravitate to titles like The Longest Day and Full Metal Jacket. Those are fine pieces of cinema, but Leon Morin, Priest is more...
View ArticleLast Night in Soho
As a filmmaker, writer-director Edgar Wright is best known for stylish genre exercises that feature impeccable music cues. These are the hallmarks of all his breakout hits, such as the Cornetto trilogy...
View ArticleAntlers
Antlers, the new horror film from Scott Cooper, attempts to be both respectable and gross. It depicts a number of ills in modern American life, including poverty and addiction, while also featuring a...
View ArticleThe Spine of Night
Animated horror film The Spine of Night will undoubtedly draw several well-earned comparisons. The bold imagery created by directors Philip Gelatt and Morgan Galen are a love letter to 1981’s delirious...
View ArticleOnly the Animals
Oh, the tangled webs we weave. Dominik Moll (With a Friend Like Harry) explores these sticky and often fraught webs in his latest film Only the Animals. The slow-burn whodunit is told in four distinct...
View ArticleRoh
The unknown depths of a forest haunt a young mother and her two children in Roh (a title that translates to “soul” from its native Malay). Much of Emir Ezwan’s film is suggestive of an actual threat,...
View ArticleRevisit: The Accidental Tourist
The late, great Roger Ebert once called Lawrence Kasdan’s 1988 drama The Accidental Tourist, the most delightful film of the year, but “also seemingly one of the most depressing.” That’s an accurate...
View ArticleJoy Ride
In Joy Ride, a documentary/standup special hybrid that follows comedians Bobcat Goldthwait and Dana Gould as they embark on a tour across the American south, you essentially get exactly what is...
View ArticleHeart of Champions
Heart of Champions is another in a long line of sports movies that labor to place undue significance upon the events of their story. In general, the story of a sports team’s triumph over adversity...
View ArticleCriminally Underrated: King of New York
In 1991, Christopher Walken was still a fairly young actor, gradually cultivating the mystique of a true original and just a couple of years shy of the cameos in Pulp Fiction and True Romance that...
View ArticleOeuvre: Solondz: Life During Wartime
Earlier this week, music writer Matthew Perpetua published “Party in the USA: The Obama Vibe Shift 2008-2011,” a music playlist full of saccharine late-aughts pop cheer (e.g. Black Eyed Peas and Katy...
View ArticleThe Batman
What can be done with Batman that hasn’t been done already? The Caped Crusader has appeared in comic books, televisions series, films and video games for almost a century. With that longevity comes a...
View Article