Revisit: Wayne’s World
Wayne’s World shouldn’t be the topic of this feature. My revisit was literally accidental, due to a recent slip and fall. Before the mishap, the film represented little more than a childhood obsession,...
View ArticlePloey
Ploey is an English-language Icelandic animated film about an eponymous plover chick who gets into all kinds of trouble. On the surface, it looks like a perfectly good kid’s movie following...
View ArticleCriminally Underrated: Un Flic
To say a Jean-Pierre Melville film is underrated is to perhaps overstate the case. The French writer-director is well known for his classic noir films such as Bob le Flambeur and Le Samourai, as well...
View ArticleOeuvre: Carpenter: Village of the Damned
Much of John Carpenter’s oeuvre is predicated on the revisiting of familiar motifs. This has been the case both in his writing and directing output—rife with remakes and reimaginings—and his soundtrack...
View ArticleLong Shot
Like most Seth Rogen vehicles, Long Shot is a tightly wound, middle-concept 90-minute comedy crammed into two hours. Its conceit, of a monstrously qualified, thoroughly vetted presidential hopeful...
View ArticleShadow
The characters in Zhang Yimou’s new film Shadow dance across the screen like ink in water, twisting and swirling gracefully while the light bends artfully bends around them. Zhang, whose varied and...
View ArticleRevisit: Frank
Public infatuation with the mythos of mad genius pervades art regardless of the medium. The poverty-stricken Vincent Van Gogh is perhaps better known for severing his own ear than for his now...
View ArticleExtremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile
Thanks to Netflix and Joe Berlinger, vicious and prolific serial killer Ted Bundy is having himself a moment. On the heels of Berlinger’s true crime docuseries Conversations with a Killer: The Ted...
View ArticleNon-Fiction
Non-Fiction, the latest film by Olivier Assayas (Personal Shopper, Clouds of Sils Maria) might as well be a detective picture. Its central mystery, which dogged me throughout two viewings, amounts to...
View ArticleMeeting Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev should be considered the most influential figure of the latter 20th century. He rose to the title of General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1985 and played...
View ArticleHoly Hell! The Iron Giant Turns 20
In the early ‘90s, Disney animated features reaped in every family’s dollar and achieved record box office grosses, so the other major studios beefed up their animation divisions looking for a cut of...
View ArticleOeuvre: Carpenter: Escape from L.A.
Escape from L.A. in many ways feels like its theme song. Using John Carpenter’s spartan, electronic Escape from New York theme as its base, the new track bolsters the composition with a full rock...
View ArticlePokémon Detective Pikachu
With Pokémon Detective Pikachu, the Pokémon franchise has a chance to introduce audiences to a live-action take on their storied world without resorting to regurgitating the adventures of Pokémon...
View ArticleAsako I & II
Ryūsuke Hamaguchi’s patient, observant style is evident from the opening moments of Asako I & II. The film unfolds as a placid montage of Osaka’s streets where a young woman, Asako (Erika Karata),...
View ArticleThe Biggest Little Farm
Climate change, corporate farming and the politicization of both have made nature documentaries play increasingly like either fantasy or apocalyptic horror. This, and the surplus of HGTV-style...
View ArticleCharlie Says
To many, the Manson Family murder spree killed the free love ‘60s. During the summer of ‘69, the mesmerizing influence of Manson—who never physically killed anyone himself—infamously led his hippie...
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Revisit: The Princess Bride
The cult of The Princess Bride is still strong 32 years after its release. Simply say the word “inconceivable” and you can guarantee that someone will imitate Wallace Shawn’s smarmy Venetian, Vizzini....
View ArticleThe Third Wife
No words are spoken for long stretches of The Third Wife, the debut feature film from Ash Mayfair, and for good reason. Shot in rural Vietnam, the film desires to luxuriate in its images rather than...
View ArticleWine Country
It pains me to write the next sentence. Wine Country, Amy Poehler’s directorial debut now streaming on Netflix, is bad. Its cast (mostly of middle-aged women) couldn’t have been better. Its setting is...
View ArticleFrom the Vaults of Streaming Hell: Monster Party
Chris von Hoffmann’s Monster Party is both surprisingly good yet somewhat disappointing. Starting with the logistically flimsy but insanely fun set-up of three petty criminals accidentally targeting a...
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