Holy Hell! Good Burger Turns 20
Believe it or not, kids, Good Burger is 20 years old. The byproduct of “All That,” the “Saturday Night Live” equivalent for the children’s comedy market, the movie originated from a simple recurring...
View ArticleOeuvre: Demme: Storefront Hitchcock
Even if you’re not a devotee of Robyn Hitchcock, Jonathan Demme’s cult-classic concert film chronicling the British singer-songwriter’s live show is a fascinating experience. Storefront Hitchcock...
View ArticleWoodshock
Following the death of her mother, whom she assisted in suicide, Theresa (Kirsten Dunst) wanders around in a daze and touches stuff. She trails her fingers along the hallway wall, lies in bed and...
View ArticleAmerican Made
From the moment the spinning globe of the Universal logo skips mid-frame, transforming from the grandeur of its current CGI incarnation to the flat, throwback iteration from the ’70s, it’s clear...
View ArticleRealive
There should be more small-scale, big-minded films such as the independent sci-fi feature Realive. Mateo Gil, the writer of the excellent, intellectually curious Spanish films Open Your Eyes and The...
View ArticleSuper Dark Times
The engrossing and atmospheric coming-of-age thriller Super Dark Times captures much of the wonder and terror of growing up. In his feature film debut, director Kevin Phillips’s background in...
View ArticleThe Sound
The Sound, by writer/director Jenna Mattison, is a paranormal thriller of many strengths and a glaring weakness. Starring Rose McGowan as Kelly Johansen, an obsessive investigator and debunker of...
View ArticleWindow Horses
Window Horses starts poorly, but it becomes engrossing fairly rapidly. The animation style of the film is ugly and uninteresting and the early plot maneuvers are heavily based on multiple contrived...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Revisit: The Young Girls of Rochefort
Life’s regrets aren’t often the basis of a movie musical, yet French director Jacques Demy is best known for his two films that fit that exact description. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is his bittersweet...
View ArticleLucky
The cliché plot that typically surrounds crotchety old men involves the old grump softening and opening up about his past thanks to a small child or sweet, concerned woman. Such was the case for A Man...
View ArticleWhite Sun
White Sun presents a slice of life in postwar Nepal. It carefully balances between being ethnographic and being cinematic, ensuring that, even while showing how highland villagers live, it remains...
View ArticleCriminally Overrated: The Shawshank Redemption
Admit it. You all love The Shawshank Redemption. The feature debut of writer-director Frank Darabont enjoys a 91% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and stands tied with The Godfather at the top of IMDb’s...
View ArticleOeuvre: Demme: The Truth About Charlie
In 2002’s The Truth About Charlie, Jonathan Demme reimagines an old Hollywood gem as an expressive, experimental slice of modernity, to mixed results. It’s one of two notable remakes in his...
View ArticleBlade Runner 2049
As technology continues to advance exponentially in the 21st century, the idea of artificial intelligence taking on a form that’s virtually indistinguishable from humans seems far more...
View ArticleBetter Watch Out
Honestly, do we need any more movies about the early warning signs of a serial killer and the environment that breeds such psychopaths? The obsessive fixation and lack of empathy are common knowledge...
View ArticleCold Moon
Back in the ‘80s, Steven Spielberg and his acolytes mined sci-fi and fantasy to make family-friendly features. There were chills, thrills and everyone went home happy. In another corner of the cinema...
View ArticleRevisit: A Bronx Tale
In recent years, Robert De Niro’s become something of a punchline with his Nicolas Cage-esque tendency to sign on for terrible movies far beneath his talent level. The man is a legend, yet seems...
View ArticleArchitects of Denial
Architects of Denial is a puerile propaganda piece that traffics in hyperbolic melodrama, blatant one-sided reporting of facts and barely-concealed racism. It is shot with a documentary style from 30...
View ArticleFrom the Vaults of Streaming Hell: Monkey Up
When it comes to talking animal movies, there’s nothing as popular as a talking dog except a talking monkey. Air Bud spawned Air Bud Entertainment – truly making a business solely out of this brand of...
View ArticleHappy Death Day
Groundhog Day may have perfected the time-loop movie paradigm, so much so that it’s synonymous with any film that plays in that particular structural sandbox. But Edge of Tomorrow proved that the...
View Article