Category: Reviews

Everyone Has a Price, Including the Director – Generation Wealth

Lauren Greenfield is a brilliant and accomplished photographer and documentarian, with great work like THIN and The Queen of Versailles to her name. Her latest effort, Generation Wealth, was one of the opening entries at the Sundance Film Festival this year, and has received decent press. However, I can't entirely get behind it, mostly because I don't care … Continue reading Everyone Has a Price, Including the Director – Generation Wealth →

Living Just Enough for the City – Blindspotting

I had an odd observation while watching an advance screening of the new film, Blindspotting with my girlfriend last night. Earlier this year, through MoviePass, we got to attend an advance screening of Flower, which reminded me of Kevin Smith's debut, Clerks, in that the joke about a girl sucking 37 dicks was essentially the main character trait of … Continue reading Living Just Enough for the City – Blindspotting →

It Like, Um, Kinda, You Know, Isn’t That Good – Eighth Grade

In preparation for Eighth Grade, written and directed by comedian Bo Burnham, my girlfriend and I watched his 2016 special, Make Happy. It was weird, confusing, and utterly brilliant, because he was able to combine stage effects, music, and jokes to send up everything from pop culture to technology to politics to race relations. In particular, there … Continue reading It Like, Um, Kinda, You Know, Isn’t That Good – Eighth Grade →

Spinning Around Until You Wipe Out – Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot

John Callahan was an American cartoonist who often dealt with macabre and off-putting subject matter, usually as a means to cope with his disabilities, having become partially paralyzed in a drunk driving accident at the age of 21. The title of his memoir - which is also the title of the film - is itself … Continue reading Spinning Around Until You Wipe Out – Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot →

Use Your Inside White Voice – Sorry to Bother You

Written and directed by rapper and founding member of The Coup, Boots Riley, Sorry to Bother You is a brilliant satire about life in corporate America - quite possibly the finest put to screen since Thank You for Smoking. But what elevates this film from just being really good and really funny to the pantheon of 2018 … Continue reading Use Your Inside White Voice – Sorry to Bother You →

Lots of Jokes Buzzing Around That Don’t Bug You Too Much – Ant-Man and the Wasp

Are we all done crying over Peter Parker yet? Because it's time to move on. We're just under three months removed from Avengers: Infinity War, and if you go to various websites, you can see if Thanos snapped you out of existence. But in the meantime, to tide us over until the resolution sometime next year, … Continue reading Lots of Jokes Buzzing Around That Don’t Bug You Too Much – Ant-Man and the Wasp →

From Amigos to Stooges – Three Identical Strangers

In 1980, one of the most fantastic, unbelievable stories came to national media attention. Three 19-year-old men in the New York City area discovered each other through pure coincidence, learning that they were identical triplets, separated and adopted shortly after birth. They became briefly famous, viral before viral was even a thing. That story, along … Continue reading From Amigos to Stooges – Three Identical Strangers →

Into the Woods and Through the Fear – Leave No Trace

Director Debra Granik's filmography is short, but accomplished. To date, her biggest achievement was the 2010 film, Winter's Bone, her second feature, which earned four Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Adapted Screenplay for Granik, Supporting Actor for John Hawkes, and Best Actress for Jennifer Lawrence. The film is widely regarded as the movie that launched … Continue reading Into the Woods and Through the Fear – Leave No Trace →

What Else Could Possi-BLYE Go Wrong? – Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Anyone who's been reading this blog over the past six months knows there is one thing I hate in cinema more than anything else - cynical Hollywood cash grabs. These are the movies that are thrown together purely to make money, with little to no regard for quality, story, or even basic logic. They're often … Continue reading What Else Could Possi-BLYE Go Wrong? – Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom →