I hadn't originally planned to see the cinematic adaptation of Clifford the Big Red Dog, even though the trailer suggested it would be an enjoyable film for kids. I'm simply not the target audience, and I'm self-aware enough to realize that it would look weird for a single man in his late 30s to take … Continue reading How Can You Say No to That Face? – Clifford the Big Red Dog
This has been stewing in me for a while now, and I've been trying to find the right words to describe what I experienced with this movie. This is the best I can come up with. Strap in. I've seen every Marvel Cinematic Universe film to date, with some being much better than others. But … Continue reading Disney Can’t Stress Enough How Much it Hates You – Eternals
Edgar Wright has already given us one cinematic triumph this year in the form of the fantastic music documentary, The Sparks Brothers, which at times served as a distillation of his expertise in crafting movies around a catalog soundtrack. Truly there are few filmmakers out there able to make a narrative work hand-in-hand with era-appropriate … Continue reading Through the Looking Glass – Last Night in Soho
As I mentioned in October's edition of "This Film is Not Yet Watchable," the new version of Dune is that ultra-rare film that not only clears the bar to pass my personal "Remake Rule," it offered multiple reasons to outright endorse the effort, at least from what I could see in the trailer. You have … Continue reading Grand Scale, Small Voices – Dune
I've mentioned before that the films of Wes Anderson are fairly hit and miss for me. He is no doubt a great writer and spectacular visual artist, creating brilliantly whimsical set pieces that feel like living in a painting at times. But how that fanciful approach hits you is essentially a crap shoot. For me, … Continue reading As Fun As Having a Magazine Read to You – The French Dispatch
Nearly 25 years ago, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, already decently well-known actors, made their breakthrough to superstardom with Good Will Hunting, which the childhood friends co-wrote and starred in. The pair won the Oscar for Original Screenplay, along with Robin Williams winning Best Supporting Actor. The collaboration placed them squarely on Hollywood's A-list, a … Continue reading A Matter of Perspective – The Last Duel
I've mentioned before that this year has been relatively weak when it comes to animation. We've had one half-decent but underwhelming core Disney movie, one of the worst Pixar entries outside of the Cars series, and several ill-advised sequels to the likes of The Addams Family and The Boss Baby. The only real triumph in … Continue reading Who Wants to Be Right? – Ron’s Gone Wrong
In 2018, a youth soccer team in Thailand got trapped deep inside a mountain cave after heavy rains flooded the tunnels and passages that they used to get in, an early storm that signaled the onset of monsoon season. In the nearly three weeks that followed, a massive international effort was undertaken to get those … Continue reading You Couldn’t Script it Better – The Rescue
Oh, did I say we were going to do three reviews in a row for International Feature submissions? Make that four! And within a couple of weeks, that number may very well be up to six, as Kosovo and Japan's entries are getting their stateside releases later this month as well. But for the time … Continue reading Belittled Man in the Boat – Luzzu
For the third in our unintentional continuing series on International Oscar submissions, we look at Lamb, from Iceland, a film much better than the lame pun I used in the headline. Directed by Valdimar Jóhansson in his feature debut, the movie has all the earmarks of a great, slow burn bit of horror, with just … Continue reading It Had to Be Ewe – Lamb
I Actually Paid To See This 