Revisit: Peeping Tom
In 1960, two British directors released disturbing and influential psychological thrillers about voyeuristic killers. Both films would ooze Freudian overtones while presenting psychotic killers whose...
View ArticleAuthor: The JT LeRoy Story
Voltaire once said “If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.” The same might be said of author JT LeRoy, the literary wunderkind that took Hollywood by storm in 2000 with the...
View ArticleDemon
A funereal pall hangs over Demon, not only for its ghostly subject matter but for the haunting history that will forever shroud the film. A few days after Demon opened to great press at the Toronto...
View ArticleBrother Nature
Over the summer, veteran cast member Taran Killam was axed from “Saturday Night Live” with one year remaining on his contract. Killam never rose to the star-power level of direct predecessors like Bill...
View ArticleHoly Hell! Space Jam Turns 20
Twenty-some odd years ago, the powers that be at Warner Brothers decided that their Looney Tunes characters needed a reboot. Enter director Joe Pytka who won acclaim for his 1992 Super Bowl commercial...
View ArticleOeuvre: Soderbergh: Bubble
At the time of its release, the idea of Bubble opening in theaters, on demand and on DVD simultaneously was heretical—little more than the madcap machinations of Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner’s then...
View ArticleBlair Witch
How do you create The Blair Witch Project 2.0? Start by ignoring the woeful 2000 Book of Shadows sequel, and then proceed to upgrade the technology. Blair Witch arrives full of hi-tech gadgets that...
View ArticleSnowden
Oliver Stone hasn’t made a great film since JFK, which was arguably his last watchable one as well. Snowden, while not the unmitigated disaster Alexander was, doesn’t quite qualify as a return to form....
View ArticleThe Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years
Is it possible for a movie to say anything new about the Beatles? John Lennon joked that they were “more popular than Jesus” for a reason; their legacy is hardcoded into our collective DNA. There’s no...
View ArticleRediscover: Dark Passage
The most underrated of the Humphrey Bogart/Lauren Bacall pairings has got to be Dark Passage. After the focus on the duo’s chemistry in To Have and Have Not and The Big Sleep, Dark Passage was their...
View ArticleOperation Avalanche
Put simply, Operation Avalanche is a thrilling cinematic experience. It’s that rare film capable of evoking a series of wide-ranging emotions while remaining engrossing, adhering with unflinching...
View ArticleTanna
As well acted and beautifully filmed as Tanna is, there is nonetheless something strange and voyeuristic about watching it. Though the film is based on a true story from the actual island of Tanna (an...
View ArticleMiss Stevens
Teacher films like Matilda, Mr. Holland’s Opus or Dead Poet’s Society have made audiences come to expect this narrative of incredibly supportive and inspirational educators. Julia Hart’s Miss Stevens...
View ArticleFinding Altamira
Finding Altamira’s opening sequence is dazzling, full of narrative verve and cinematic power. It consists of two parallel-edited scenes, one at an anthropological discussion in 1870s Paris and another...
View ArticleCriminally Overrated: Breakfast at Tiffany’s
When you conjure up Audrey Hepburn, you probably see her as she looks on the iconic Breakfast at Tiffany’s poster. The image is deeply ingrained: slinky black dress, coiffed hair, Cat slung about her...
View ArticleOeuvre: Soderberg: The Good German
Revisiting a kind of indulgent nostalgia itch not scratched since Kafka, Steven Soderbergh followed up the DIY DV aesthetic of Bubble with an exhaustive, arsenic-laced love letter to the golden age of...
View ArticleThe Magnificent Seven
The summer movie slate has turned into a relentless parade of regurgitated IP, but this fact becomes less depressing after a sober rejiggering of one’s expectations. As a filmgoer, if you go into a...
View ArticleGoat
The world of fraternity hazing takes the shape of horror exploitation in Andrew Neel’s intense and graphic drama Goat. It’s a vicious and often bewildering story of violence and animus among American...
View ArticleBeauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Bête)
The French fairy tale La Belle et la Bête has been adapted an insane number of times. It’s been made into a feature film at least ten times and has been a television show twice (three times if you...
View ArticleQueen of Katwe
Queen of Katwe is a remarkable evolution of the Disney/ESPN credo. While it treads familiar territory – believe in yourself; never give up on your dreams – it does so in a context of different,...
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