(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 ›
review
Movie Review: “The Nest” (2020)
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 ›
Movie Review: “I’m Thinking of Ending Things”
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 ›
Movie Review: “Bill & Ted Face the Music”
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 ›
Movie Review: “The Personal History of David Copperfield”
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 ›
Movie Review: “You Cannot Kill David Arquette”
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 ›
Movie Review: “Stage Mother” (2020)
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 ›
Movie Review: “Endless” (2020)
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 ›
Movie Review: “The Secret Garden” (2020)
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 ›
Movie Review: “Out Stealing Horses”
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
