Revisit: Shadow of a Doubt
This week marks what would have been Alfred Hitchcock’s 117th birthday and as such it only makes sense to revisit what he considered the best of his own films: Shadow of a Doubt. Hitchcock’s 1943...
View ArticleJoshy
If the suicide comedy hasn’t already been established as a genre, Joshy works hard to make it so. Written and directed by Jeff Baena, the film hits the necessary marks to satisfy those who like the...
View ArticleFrom the Vaults of Streaming Hell: Amanda and the Alien
There are a couple of really hot human beings in Amanda and the Alien. They model an array of ’90s mall fashions. Or they do when they’re wearing clothes. Those are the main selling points in this 1995...
View ArticleEdge of Winter
The feature debut by director Rob Connolly, Edge of Winter does not sizzle with any of the aesthetic boldness or narrative experimentation so often on display in first efforts. Instead, it is a rather...
View ArticleOeuvre: Soderbergh: Ocean’s Eleven
What sells a Vegas casino heist movie is not the compelling plot or awards-baiting performances. It needs flashy lights and gold sequined dresses and a score that sounds like Quincy Jones’ “Soul Bossa...
View ArticleBen-Hur
With religious films ensconced firmly in their own studio-made enclave it’s rare to find a movie with a marketing campaign so eager to please anyone and everyone. Yet Paramount’s epic – in both size...
View ArticleWar Dogs
Last year, comedy writer/director Adam McKay released an irreverent take on a serious, complicated issue. Now, it’s Todd Phillips’ turn. With The Big Short, McKay would make an accessible, educational...
View ArticleImperium
Imperium tries to win you over with a dozen Nazi cupcakes. “The frosting is a little messed up,” a blushing housewife tells undercover FBI agent Nate Foster, played by Daniel Radcliffe, as she proffers...
View ArticleMorris from America
Morris from America has such obvious potential for greatness that its shortcomings nearly overpower its triumphs. The new film by Chad Hartigan (This Is Martin Bonner) has a terrific cast and a premise...
View ArticleKingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV
Movie adaptations and spinoffs of video games have a rocky history. Even mediocre films like Tomb Raider and Silent Hill are remembered as successes because of utter creative and commercial failures...
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Rediscover: The Emigrants/The New Land
The settling of the United States is a story often told in Hollywood. But for every exquisite film (Robert Altman’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller), there is fantastical crap ( Far and Away) that...
View ArticleLo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World
Werner Herzog has become a better documentarian than feature filmmaker in the latter portion of his career, transporting his audiences via non-fiction films to remote places such as Antarctica, the...
View ArticleCriminally Overrated: The Color of Money
Director Martin Scorsese was in a pit of despair in the late-’80s. After the critical and financial success of Raging Bull in 1980, Scorsese failed to recapture that glory with his follow-ups The King...
View ArticleIxcanul
Grim and gloomy, Ixcanul situates its tragic rustic narrative beneath an active volcano, this looming presence granting the surrounding landscape a Mordor-esque barrenness, cast in asphalt tones of...
View ArticleA Tale of Love and Darkness
The central tenet behind the philosophy of Amos Oz’s A Tale of Love and Darkness holds that, “a fulfilled dream is a disappointing dream,” disappointment being the very nature of dreams. That...
View ArticleOeuvre: Soderbergh: Full Frontal
Steven Soderbergh, the brash, rule-breaking upstart whose early films crackled with the audacity of a non-conforming outsider, entered 2002 as the ultimate Hollywood insider. He was on an epic hot...
View ArticleHands of Stone
Boxing legend Roberto Duran was a wildcard, so it stands to reason that his biopic, Hands of Stone, would be equally as radical. Promoted by The Weinstein Company, known for its Oscar bait, Hands of...
View ArticleDon’t Breathe
The horror genre has always teetered between the two extremes of visionary originality and utter derivation. This makes Fede Alvarez’s new film Don’t Breathe all the more impressive as it manages to...
View ArticleIn Order of Disappearance
There may be no more perfect setting for a revenge story than in terrain blanketed with snow. The austere and unforgiving conditions of the frigid tundra not only mirror the icy hearts of the...
View ArticleSouthside with You
Movies about Barack Obama are definitely coming. The eight years he’s served as America’s first black President have had a distinctly cinematic air, and the towering, Oscar-baiting epics depicting this...
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