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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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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Movie Review: “Exit Plan”
There is something to be said for moody films which contemplate what it means to be alive and what it means to die on one’s own terms. Nicolaj Coster-Waldau’s latest, “Exit Plan,” is just that – a movie that examines… Read More ›
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Movie Review: “Shirley” (2020)
It would be unfair to say that once the credits start rolling on Josephine Decker’s “Shirley” one will ask why they bothered watching it all the way through. The answer to that is Elisabeth Moss. Yet again proving herself to… Read More ›
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Great Versus Great fun: “The Deer Hunter” and “Escape from L.A.”
“The Deer Hunter” is an incredible film. It is also a difficult watch. It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve seen it — the thing never gets any easier even when you know what’s going to happen. “Escape from L.A.”… Read More ›
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Movie Review: “The Vast of Night”
There are movies out there that make you feel the weight of whatever event is taking place within them. Then there are movies where the event may be important, but rather than experiencing emotions based on it, the sentiment felt… Read More ›
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How can we see the Breath of “The Invisible Man?”
I don’t necessarily like being the person who looks at something fun and has all the enjoyment sucked out of it for a potentially silly reason, and yet, here we are. You can’t fight genetics. Or, you can fight genetics… Read More ›
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The one with Ross’s Sandwich… Recipe
Please forgive the kind of meta nature of the below piece. It feels essential to do it this way… Every so often when I request a review copy of something, the response I get is positive, but it comes with… Read More ›
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Movie Review: “The Painter and the Thief”
A painter has a show in an art gallery. A drug addict in the middle of an extended binge breaks into said gallery with another man and steals two of the painter’s works. When the thief comes down and is… Read More ›
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Playing Catch-up: “Flashdance,” Tom Cruise, and “Downhill”
This week’s podcast is 75% look back and 25% disappointment. Sure, that’s like an apples and air fryers kind of a thing taking us to 100%, but there’s a pandemic on and we don’t have to play by the rules… Read More ›
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Movie Review: “Scoob!”
There is no specific need for a Stargate to appear in “Scoob!,” the new Scooby-Doo based animated film that’s arrived on VOD today, but it fits into a movie which also incorporates the Blue Falcon, Dynomutt, Dick Dastardly, Simon Cowell,… Read More ›
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“The Call of the Wild” and the Bad CG
In my middle school, everyone learned that the lead character in “The Call of the Wild,” Buck, is a dynamic progressive character. It was the way we were taught to write a standard five paragraph essay. That worked wonderfully (except… Read More ›
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Movie Review: “How to Build a Girl”
There is something unsettling that takes place throughout the running time of “How to Build a Girl.” The movie, which stars Beanie Feldstein, is full of golden little moments, great bits of humor, and a wonderful lead performance. It is… Read More ›
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Movie Review: “Spaceship Earth”
No, “Spaceship Earth” is not a tale of the ride inside the sphere right at the front of EPCOT, and if some of the architecture in Matt Wolf’s documentary looks similar to that of EPCOT’s Future World, it has to… Read More ›
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“The Jesus Rolls,” is it a Gutterball?
John Turturro has reprised his role a Jesus Quintana in “The Big Lebowski” spinoff, “The Jesus Rolls.” The movie, which is also written and directed by Turturro, is out on Blu-ray today. Now then is the perfect time for us… Read More ›
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Movie Review: “Becoming”
Watching the new Netflix documentary, “Becoming,” born from Michelle Obama’s memoir of the same name, there is the inescapable feeling that it is, in no small part, a promotional piece. That is, the documentary exists to work in synergistic fashion… Read More ›
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Consider the Blu-ray Packaging… but Maybe not too much
Okay, so we don’t judge books by their covers, right? But what about blu-rays and their cases? Does what’s on the case of a blu-ray tell us what we can expect inside? If they don’t, why does anyone waste time… Read More ›
