Revisit: Knightriders
The surprising success of Dawn of the Dead made George Romero an object of desire for Hollywood studios. He understood something executives at Universal, Paramount and Warner Bros. did not about the...
View ArticleA Gray State
A Gray State is a fast-paced, entertaining true crime documentary, however its first act suggests grander, ultimately unfulfilled ambitions on the part of director Erik Nelson. It wants to comment on...
View ArticleHoly Hell! The Game Turns 20
In 1997, David Fincher was coming off the success of Seven, which in addition to being well-received by critics and a box-office success, also represented a sort of redemption for the director after...
View ArticleGod’s Own Country
The cinematic lives of LGBT+ characters have historically been either traumatic or comedic, particularly when it comes to romance. The most significant queer love stories on film either end tragically...
View ArticleOeuvre: Demme: Rachel Getting Married
On a first viewing, Rachel Getting Married is terrifying in its mounting domestic fury, taking then-trendy cringe comedy into red levels of melodrama as recovering addict Kym (Anne Hathaway) returns...
View ArticleMurder on the Orient Express
At once an ornately photographed throwback and a blatant gambit for franchise building, Kenneth Branagh’s new adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express is an enjoyable film brought...
View ArticleThree Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Hard truths and harder personalities abound in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, a Southern Gothic powder keg directed by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh. His three feature films—In Bruges,...
View ArticleMayhem
Mayhem is the latest in a long line of movies designed to remind us that corporate striving is a soul deadening pursuit. The premise offered by writer Matias Caruso and director Joe Lynch is a little...
View ArticleBPM (Beats per Minute)
Midway through Robin Campillo’s BPM (Beats per Minute), a young HIV sufferer succumbs to the disease, his body experiencing the quick tumbling of T-cell count afflicting those stricken with its most...
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Revisit: Dheepan
Following the distinctive and structurally immaculate features A Prophet and Rust and Bone, French filmmaker Jacques Audiard returns with an uncharacteristically sloppy immigration drama. The...
View ArticleThelma
In the way that 2015 Dutch film When Animals Dream used the supernatural as a metaphorical manifestation of burgeoning sexuality, Joachim Trier’s Thelma uses supernatural powers to personify the inner...
View ArticleBitch
In writer/director/star Marianna Palka’s newest film, Bitch, a premise that sounds like a particularly shitty ‘90s comedy is mined for challenging social commentary. Palka portrays Jill Hart, an...
View ArticleDestination Unknown
In her documentary Destination Unknown, director Claire Ferguson interviews a series of Holocaust survivors–European Jews that hid and escaped Nazi persecution during the war and Jewish partisan...
View ArticleCriminally Underrated: The Bourne Legacy
The Bourne trilogy of films—The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum—reflected both the politics and filmmaking styles of their time. They featured a disillusioned military...
View ArticleOeuvre: Demme: Neil Young Trunk Show
Never the most exciting genre, concert films seem to intrinsically lack some essential cinematic spark, serving as a paltry communicator of the communal joy of witnessing a truly rousing live...
View ArticleMudbound
Should a film be considered solely on its own merits, disregarding its creators and contributors? This is a question often asked when considering the work of controversial actors and directors, a...
View ArticleJustice League
After a tumultuous production marred by rewrites, reshoots and the knee-jerk reactions to the fascinating abomination that was Batman v Superman, Zack Snyder’s Justice League is a great many things....
View ArticleOn the Beach at Night Alone
On the Beach at Night Alone is a film constructed around long conversations, with very little action taking place. Most of the film consists of people gathered around tables, park benches and beach...
View ArticleSweet Virginia
Jamie M. Dagg’s Sweet Virginia opens with a shot of clouds over the green mountains of British Columbia (substituting for Alaska) as a foreboding score by Brooke and Will Blair (Blue Ruin) begins. It’s...
View ArticlePorto
Gabe Klinger’s Porto will surely delight film nerds for not only using actual celluloid but several gauges. Shot on 35mm, 16mm and Super 8, the film seeks to evoke the mindset of two young people, Jake...
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