If you follow the news you will hear a lot of people—some perhaps well meaning and some most definitely not—suggest that the protests that have taken place in this country this summer are wrong. They will tell you that the… Read More ›
It is a truly impressive feat for a filmmaker to perfectly close the story they are telling just before the credits roll and, at the exact same second, have an audience truly care about what happens next. For such a… Read More ›
(editor’s note: I have done my best to avoid spoilers in the below, but can’t swear that there aren’t any.) Not for the first, it is important to say that there is a difference between raising important ideas in a… Read More ›
Written and directed by Sean Durkin, “The Nest” opens by offering a typical day in the life of one family in the 1980s. We get the husband, Rory (Jude Law), on an early morning phone call and then waking his… Read More ›
The fourth season of Adult Swim’s “Rick and Morty” is now out on Blu-ray and we’re talking about it on this week’s podcast. Now, if you haven’t seen the cartoon, you should know that it can be described in a… Read More ›
There are incredibly great reasons to be angry at the world right now, and if you’ve heard our recent podcasts, you will be well aware that we have expressed frustration at any number of (deserving) things. This week though we’re… Read More ›
Featuring stunning images of the Pacific Theater during World War II, “Apocalypse ’45,” is currently airing on the Discovery Channel (check your local listings for exact days and times). Today’s podcast features the film’s director, Erik Nelson, who tells us… Read More ›
I would be lying if I say to you that I have fully worked out what is truly taking place in Charlie Kaufman’s new film, “I’m Thinking of Ending Things.” I have ideas and suspicions and am on my way… Read More ›
The idea of a movie, just any old movie, opening up in theaters shouldn’t be novel. There was a time when we got new movies in theaters every single week. Then, we allowed a megalomaniacal individual to run amok in… Read More ›
About 30 minutes after watching “Bill & Ted Face the Music,” I sat down to watch it again. After my first go through, I was unsure how I felt about the movie. Usually when this happens, I start writing my… Read More ›
My favorite filmic version of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” is the one with The Muppets. Fabulously presented, the whole thing unfolds so as to not only offer up the story and insights into the nature of humanity, but contains… Read More ›
Not every documentary can necessarily be believed. By their very nature, a documentary claims a certain amount of nonfiction status, but claiming that status and actually being nonfiction are two wholly different things. It would not surprise me in any… Read More ›
Are there some movies which exist as streaming originals that one can’t imagine ever having hit a movie theater? Undoubtedly. But, are some of them utterly fantastic? Unequivocally. This week we examine just what that means as we discuss HBOMax’s… Read More ›
The new film “Stage Mother,” directed by Thom Fitzgerald with a script from Brad Joseph Hennig is one of those movies which may be obvious and stilted and all too easy, but which still manages some level of success. The… Read More ›
Every once in a while—happily only a once in a great while—I come across a movie which is, for lack of a more descriptive term (we’ll get to that exploration later), bad, but, which also fails to engender anger. Perhaps… Read More ›
I thoroughly enjoyed the first season of “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan,” the Amazon streaming show based on the literary character. I also quite enjoyed the second season, which is now out on Blu-ray, but it wasn’t perfect. This week’s podcast… Read More ›
There are many films which leave themselves open to interpretation. Depending on the interpretation one takes, a film can either be enjoyable or disappointing. Watching the new adaptation of “The Secret Garden,” my viewpoint on the movie made it an… Read More ›
Earlier this summer, I wrote about a movie where Stellan Skarsgård puts in a brief appearance. I noted that the movie was gorgeous and well-considered. I also talked about how it was desperately bleak and how I had no desire… Read More ›
On today’s podcast we have director Will Addison. He’s got a new film on demand called “Easy Does It,” which looks at a couple of (bad) robbers as they pursue their version of the American Dream. Over the course of… Read More ›
There is an interesting question posed by “Summerland” at the outset of writer/director Jessica Swale’s film. We initially meet Alice (played by Penelope Wilton) in 1975. Disturbed from her writing by some kids raising money, she yells at them and… Read More ›
Out this week on Blu-ray is HBO’s “The Outsider.” Out last week is the classic comedy, “Airplane!” Both of these offer up perfect examples of what we do too irregularly in this world — stop, assess, and correct. You may… Read More ›
For whatever reason, we have to suffer through horrible fiction tropes across multiple types of media, things that make no sense and yet keep popping up over and over again. One trope that I find particularly heinous is, “no, we… Read More ›
Some films, even if one knows nothing else about them, are quite clearly based on a true story. Every element of story structure screams it. This does not, in and of itself, make a work good or bad, it is… Read More ›
Turning 25 years old this summer is “Clueless,” Amy Heckerling’s wonderful update to “Emma,” with Alicia Silverstone knocking it out of the park as the lead. It is a movie which may be loud and boisterous, but which uses that… Read More ›
