Author Archives
Josh Lasser is a freelance entertainment reporter/critic. His work has appeared in print, online, and perhaps one day in book form.
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Movie Review: “Summerland”
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 ›
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Stop. Assess. Correct.
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 ›
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Movie Review: “The Rental”
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 ›
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Movie Review: “Most Wanted” (2020)
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 ›
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“Clueless” and “Trolls: World Tour” – Movies Turned to 11
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 ›
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Movie Review: “Radioactive”
Regularly when one watches a biopic, there is a written postscript which talks about what happens to the character(s) and/or their work (good or bad). “Radioactive,” a movie about Marie Curie, doesn’t eschew a few closing notes, but, wonderfully, incorporates… Read More ›
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Movie Review: “The Painted Bird”
There are times when I watch movies that I would consider good, or even great, but which I well and truly do not enjoy. These are movies where I recognize the prowess and artistry of those who made it, but… Read More ›
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A “Ghost” of a Podcast
Next week, Paramount is releasing a new Blu-ray of “Ghost,” the 1990 film starring Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, and Whoopi Goldberg. That provides us the perfect opportunity to take another look at the movie. I will admit to enjoying the… Read More ›
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Movie Review: “The Old Guard” (2020)
Sometimes movies function on all cylinders, everything working towards a single goal. Other times—perhaps more often—elements of a film are at odds with each other. These disparate elements may simply not mesh well or they could work actively against one… Read More ›
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Movie Review: “The Truth” (2020)
While watching writer-director Hirokazu Kore-Eda’s latest film, “The Truth,” I couldn’t shake the fact that there was something very familiar about it. Perhaps the fact that it was selected for both Venice and TIFF caused it to lodge in my… Read More ›
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Movie Review: “My Spy”
In the first few minutes of the new David Bautista film, “My Spy,” there are references to “Fifty Shades of Grey,” “Iron Man 2,” and “Notting Hill.” There are also a bunch of jokes based on diegetic needle drops (okay,… Read More ›
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Peter Medak Talks Peter Sellers
Director Peter Medak has made a new documentary entitled, “The Ghost of Peter Sellers.” The movie looks at Medak’s experiences directing Sellers in the the 1973 film, “Ghost in the Noonday Sun.” Well, we say the “1973 film,” but “Ghost… Read More ›
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Movie Review: “You Should Have Left”
The most impressive thing about writer-director David Koepp’s “You Should Have Left” (which is based on the novel by Daniel Kehlmann) is that it is not content with simply offering up an exploration of whether Kevin Bacon’s Theo Conroy’s dark… Read More ›
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Movie Review: “7500”
Watching a movie there is often a push-and-pull where one’s head fights their heart (or vice versa). Logically speaking, the characters are acting in incredibly dumb ways, ways sure to result in poor outcomes. Emotionally speaking, the characters are trapped… Read More ›
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Movie Review: “Scare Package”
As always when I tackle horror, I come at it from an “intrigued by the genre but certainly not an expert in the minutiae” stance (there are sites which focus solely on horror and do so wonderfully). And, stating that,… Read More ›
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Different Deplorables: “The Hunt” and “Urban Cowboy”
John Travolta’s character in 1980’s “Urban Cowboy” is not a good person. The sad thing about the movie, however, is that it doesn’t seem to recognize this. In this year’s “The Hunt,” we have a whole lot of folks who… Read More ›
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Movie Review: “Da 5 Bloods”
As Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods” moves back and forth between the past and the present, Vietnam and the United States, open war and hidden, it becomes clear that we are watching Lee is at his best. More than that… Read More ›
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Movie Review: “The King of Staten Island”
Sometimes the movie you’re watching isn’t the movie you think you’re watching. Worse, sometimes it’s not the movie those behind it think they’ve made. With “The King of Staten Island” Judd Apatow has indeed created yet another film about adult… Read More ›
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Movie Review: “Sometimes Always Never”
Imagine a movie about a widowed father who has been searching for a missing son for years. The father’s second son is still around, now married with a teenager of his own, but the father sees right past him, always… Read More ›
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The Joys of Binging (MCU) Movies
Rather than looking at some current home video release, this week’s podcast is all about the joys of sitting down and watching a whole lot of movies from a single series. Specifically, we’re looking the MCU. Over the course of… Read More ›
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