When I saw Old a couple years ago, I commented on the fact that M. Night Shyamalan had a solid idea on his hands that could have been insanely compelling, but that almost all of the fun and suspense of the film was lost because of his over-reliance on twist endings. As I said back … Continue reading A Plague on this House – Knock at the Cabin
The previous entry in the Sword Art Online film series began the cinematic adaptation of the "Progressive" spinoff light novels, where franchise creator Reki Kawahara began a more detailed retconning of the main story, which originally jumped from Floor 1 of the floating castle Aincrad inside the titular virtual reality death game (if a player's … Continue reading Finding Your Strength – Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night
Back in 2018, I named Aneesh Chaganty's debut, Searching, as one of my favorite films of the year. John Cho's lived-in, tense performance as a man looking for his lost daughter through the voyeuristic framing device of using only his computer screen was compelling on a number of levels, and was the first social media-based … Continue reading Like, Follow, and Find My Mom – Missing
We're about 48 hours away from Oscar nominations, just enough time to squeeze in one more "Back Row Thoughts" column tackling this year's Documentary Feature shortlist (here are Part 1 and Part 2 if you want/need to catch up). Of the 15 films up for the prize, this set of reviews will bring us up … Continue reading Back Row Thoughts – Doc’s Orders, Part 3
The best moments of Alice Diop's narrative feature debut, Saint Omer, come when her avatar, Rama (Kayije Kagame) is forced to reconcile the parallels in her own life with that of Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanda), who's fighting for her life in a court of law. Heavily based on the real-life trial of Fabienne Kabou, which … Continue reading The Stand – Saint Omer
We're in the thick of it this Awards Season, with the Oscar Blitz fast approaching. The Academy announces its nominations in just over a week, the major guilds have already released their lists (with the Writers Guild of America curiously waiting until a day after AMPAS), the BAFTA nods are coming later this week, and … Continue reading Back Row Thoughts – Doc’s Orders, Part 2
In my last video, where I declared the preview for the new horror film, M3GAN to be "The Worst Trailer in the World," I conceded that the movie would still probably be fun from the standpoint of unintentional comedy, but there was no way that it could be legitimately scary given the scenes and clips … Continue reading Playtime – M3GAN
Noah Baumbach is a tremendous writer and director, giving us such amazing, thoughtful works as The Squid and the Whale, Frances Ha, and Marriage Story. He has a very keen mind for interpersonal relationships and character study, probably why he and Greta Gerwig make such a great couple. As a filmmaker, he's made his bones … Continue reading The Title Says it All – White Noise
Last year had a lot of moments that were not pleasant for me, not the least of which was turning 40. I don't like feeling that my youth is now officially behind me and that, at best, I'm at the halfway point of my life. I haven't accomplished nearly all that I wanted to by … Continue reading Tell Me I’m Pretty – Corsage
I can't believe I'd ever have to say this, but, man it has really been a down year for Tom Hanks, huh? He's been in three films this year, and all of them are incredibly flawed for one reason or another. He was clearly the worst part of Elvis, thanks to the abhorrent makeup job … Continue reading A Non-Swedish Meatball – A Man Called Otto
I Actually Paid To See This 