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
We're officially halfway through the year, with 2018 seeing something of a resurgence in quality filmmaking. The last couple of years had a few bright spots here and there (Get Out, The Grand Budapest Hotel, etc.), but for the most part, the films in the first half of the year have been largely forgettable. Thankfully, 2018 … Continue reading The Oscs – Best of 2018 So Far
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
It's been an oddly good year for R-rated comedies featuring middle-aged all-star casts acting like children. Game Night is the best so far, and Blockers won me over to a certain degree. Now we have Tag, a goofball romp based on a Wall Street Journal article from 2013 about a group of childhood friends who keep themselves in … Continue reading You’re It! And By “It,” I Mean, Surprisingly Entertaining – Tag
I've been a fan of Brad Bird ever since his days on The Simpsons, where he directed some classic episodes, including "Krusty Gets Busted," the first in the longstanding rivalry between Bart and Sideshow Bob. He was also a consultant on The Critic, the show that inspired this very column. He's had a brilliant career, to the … Continue reading A Sequel Worthy of the Wait – Incredibles 2
There are shades of two of my all-time favorite movies on display in the father/daughter musical dramedy, Hearts Beat Loud, directed by relative newcomer Brett Haley and starring Nick Offerman and Kiersey Clemons (Diggy from Dope). The first is High Fidelity, where John Cusack plays a wonderfully cynical record store owner who must discard his youthful flaws in … Continue reading Your Father’s Day Gift is Some Schmaltz and a Nice Song – Hearts Beat Loud
There's an odd dichotomy these days when it comes to horror films. With very few notable exceptions like Get Out or A Quiet Place, audiences and critics tend to have almost polar opposite reactions to modern horror. If audiences like it, critics hate it, and vice versa. So too is the case with Hereditary, written and directed by … Continue reading Sound, Fury, and Gory Shit, Still Signifying Nothing – Hereditary
A few years ago, Morgan Neville won an Academy Award for 20 Feet From Stardom, a soulful, uplifting documentary about background singers, people we literally hear every day, but who never grabbed the spotlight for themselves, for any number of reasons. Seeing Darlene Love sing "His Eye is On the Sparrow" as Neville and the producers … Continue reading I’m Not Crying, You’re Crying, Shut Up! – Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
Of the major movies released this past weekend, only one ended up with that dreaded splat on Rotten Tomatoes, and even then, just barely, at 59%. So before I take a look at the critical darlings of the weekend, I figured I'd give a little bit of attention to Hotel Artemis, an ambitious siege thriller that … Continue reading A Pastiche Siege That Aims to Please – Hotel Artemis
Today marks the release of the A-list loaded, highly marketed heist comedy, Ocean's 8, which I have already made clear that I will not see without a compelling reason, despite my girlfriend's pleas, because it comes off to me as a lazy spinoff of a remake that nobody asked for, and seems like just another excuse … Continue reading The Only Heist Movie You Should See This Weekend – American Animals
I Actually Paid To See This 