When it's all said and done, 2022 will be a very unique year for animation, in that the traditional powerhouses of the genre, Disney and Pixar, have decidedly not put their best feet forward relative to their competition. Whereas last year the field was so weak that Encanto won the Oscar for Animated Feature basically … Continue reading A Rusty Venture – Strange World
There's a beautiful complexity to Guillermo del Toro's new version of Pinocchio that few other filmmakers could have reasonably pulled off. I think it's because there isn't one direct element of this latest adaptation that commands attention as being the thing that sets it apart from all the others. It isn't just the high quality … Continue reading A Real Life – Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
Luca Guadagnino is one of the most surprising filmmakers working today. With Call Me By Your Name, he made statutory rape and jizzing into a peach somehow heartwarming. With his version of Suspiria, he managed the rare feat of creating a remake that felt unique enough to stand on its own. And with Bones and … Continue reading Bite Me – Bones and All
Mexico's entry for International Feature is a curious one, mostly because it's very clear that the decision to submit it was down to the prestige of the filmmaker rather than the film itself. With a barely passable Rotten Tomatoes score of 60%, Bardo, False Chronicles of a Handful of Truths relies almost entirely on the … Continue reading A Portrait of the Artist as an Old Man – Bardo, False Chronicles of a Handful of Truths
There is a certain boldness to Mark Mylod's The Menu that few other movies could pull off. That gamble came in the form of the film's two major trailers, which made it very clear that the movie would contain quasi-horror elements about a high-end chef trying to murder his patrons. There were even overt references … Continue reading Eat the Rich – The Menu
I've made it clear many a time on this blog that I'm not a religious person. It's just not for me, and it likely never will be. But that doesn't mean that I don't wholeheartedly support religious freedom. If you have faith, good on you. I truly hope it makes you feel comfort and fulfillment … Continue reading Heroes Without Capes – Eternal Spring
Harvey Weinstein is a piece of shit, truly garbage made flesh. Even before the truth came out about his predatory sexual behavior and outright rape, he basically represented the worst Hollywood had to offer. He was mean, aggressive, greedy, and his unabashed bribery and woefully unethical campaigning is the reason Slumdog Millionaire won Best Picture … Continue reading Going on Record – She Said
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
I Actually Paid To See This 