"You are now in the presence of the muthafuckin' KING!" proclaims Laurence Fishburne as the Bowery King in the opening moments of John Wick: Chapter 4. Presumably he's referring to himself, given his self-appointed title as leader of a network of homeless assassins and informants, but given that he prefaces this line with text from … Continue reading The Denouement – John Wick: Chapter 4
I really liked the first Shazam! movie from a few years ago. It was delightfully low stakes, Zachary Levi was tremendous as the titular original Captain Marvel, and honestly it was nice to see one of these superhero movies set in Philadelphia and largely not succumbing to cheap jokes and insults about the City of … Continue reading Family Feuds – Shazam! Fury of the Gods
Most of the time, when a film is pulled from a studio's release schedule, it's because the movie either isn't finished and won't be on time, or it's incredibly bad, necessitating a new date in order to let it quietly die alongside much stronger competition at the box office. Sometimes it's both. Over the last … Continue reading Hacking It – Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre
We're less than 72 hours away from this year's Academy Awards, and as happens every year, I didn't get to see everything before nominations were revealed. I did better than I've ever done before, coming up just five shy of pre-announcement totality, and in three of the five cases, the films weren't readily available, with … Continue reading Back Row Thoughts – The Blitz Campaign
We're officially one week from the 95th Academy Awards, and in these final days, the task falls upon me to begin officially closing the book on 2022 cinema. I was able to clear the vast majority of the Oscar nominees before they were even announced, and in my pursuit of hopefuls and also-rans after the … Continue reading Back Row Thoughts – Animation Nomination, Part 4
More than anything else in Creed III, this latest entry in the Rocky film series (notably the first where Sylvester Stallone doesn't appear, serving only in a Producer role) emphasizes the idea of casting aside the shadows of the past. Whether it's through personal healing, confrontation, or taking the reins on a meta level, this … Continue reading Out of the Shadows – Creed III
It's weird how things line up every now and then when it comes to cinema. In the late 90s, we had two movies come out within months of each other about meteor strikes (Deep Impact and Armageddon), volcanic eruptions (Volcano and Dante's Peak), ants (Antz and A Bug's Life), and men whose lives were broadcast … Continue reading Back Row Thoughts – Bear-ly Passable
Debuting on the festival circuit last year before getting its theatrical release this week, Marlowe is the 100th feature film for one of cinema's greats, Liam Neeson. And it would seem that director Neil Jordan (who previously worked with Neeson in 1996 with Michael Collins) has taken the occasion as one to celebrate not just … Continue reading The Centennial – Marlowe
In the vast and infinite incompetence, er, wisdom of Kevin Feige, the first three phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe are now canonically and collectively referred to as "The Infinity Saga." Phase Four, which began with Black Widow and will continue through Phase Six, is called "The Multiverse Saga." Now, the idea of several parallel … Continue reading Pick a Damn Lane! – Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
Well folks, we made it. After nearly two months of searching, planning, and running all over creation, we've once again reached the end of the Documentary Feature shortlist. This year was harder than most, as a lot of non-fiction films flew completely under the radar. Only a few got full-on theatrical releases, while the vast … Continue reading Back Row Thoughts: Doc’s Orders – Part 4
I Actually Paid To See This 