My relationship with the work of Steven Spielberg has been a complicated one over the last decade or so. He's undeniably one of the greatest creative and visionary minds in cinema history, harnessing the pure magic of movies while actively coming up with new tricks at every turn. Over the course of nearly five decades, … Continue reading I Am Sam – The Fabelmans
There really isn't much to Bolivia's Oscar entry, Utama, in terms of story and character. There are basically only three main players, all largely confined to a tight space on a llama farm in the Andes. The plot is fairly simple, about an elderly couple trying to get by as severe drought makes life at … Continue reading The Dying Lands – Utama
The death of Chadwick Boseman hit a lot of people really hard, myself included. He was an amazing actor, by all accounts a wonderful human being, and the way he suffered in silence through the cancer that took his life showed the fortitude of the very superhero that made him most famous. After the first … Continue reading Finding Namor – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
The International Feature category offers an incredible array of films from a wide variety of artists, but one of the more unique aspects is the political one. Each country that participates and submits a film does so through their own selection process in line with their national laws. As such, there is often controversy when … Continue reading The Tangled Web – Holy Spider
When I named The Estate as this month's "Redemption Reel," I may have oversold things. Reading it over again, in three paragraphs it might seem like I was pre-endorsing the film as one of the great comedies of the year, and if that's how it came off, I apologize. Mostly I was just delighted to … Continue reading Slags to Riches – The Estate
As I mentioned far too many times I'm sure in the last year, the idea of remaking a previous Best Picture winner is essentially blasphemous as far as I'm concerned. In almost every case it either feels like the height of hubris, with a filmmaker basically saying they can do it better despite the older … Continue reading Down in the Trenches – All Quiet on the Western Front
There is one true master when it comes to stop-motion animation filled with delightfully macabre imagery, and that's Henry Selick. Beginning his directorial career with The Nightmare Before Christmas, he's never shied away from giving audiences a dark, funny, and sneakily emotional treat through his work. But it's been a long time since his most … Continue reading Death’s Rich Pageant – Wendell & Wild
The issue of abortion rights is one I'm deeply passionate about, mostly because I grew up in two almost diametrically opposed environments on the subject. On the one hand, I was raised in a household of women (I was the only male amongst my sister, mother, and grandmother until I was 13, and had frequent … Continue reading Life Line – Call Jane
I think we can all agree that racism and bigotry are bad. At least, I wish that was the case, as we see all the time that those horrid ideas are still alive and well in American society (and if you subscribe to them, please leave, as I want nothing to do with you). But … Continue reading Be a Mensch – Armageddon Time
I mentioned in the October edition of TFINYW that the latest DCEU film, Black Adam, looked from the trailer to be a ripoff of just about every superhero movie trope in existence. What I didn't expect was that it would be so much more, in that it would also crib from non-comic properties in its … Continue reading Sham Shazam – Black Adam
I Actually Paid To See This 