The Strange Afterlife of George Carlin by Dave Itzkoff I think I’ve made my appreciation for the work of George Carlin abundant clear around this here digital place. Plenty of other people dogging cars out there on the superhighway feel … Continue reading Outside Reading — Saint George edition
Side Street (Anthony Mann, 1950). This sweaty film noir casts the ever-wooden Farley Granger as Joe Norson, a down-on-his-luck postal worker who decides to steal some cash from a law office on his route. What he believes to be a … Continue reading Then Playing — Side Street; Smithereens; The Batman
It’s been a little more than five years since Marvel’s master of the mystic arts took center frame in a film bearing his name. He’s hardly been absent in that span. Dr. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) has been the Billie … Continue reading Now Playing — Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
The Northman begins in the ninth century, and it looks it. Drawing on Scandinavian legend so distant that it’s thought to have served as inspiration for William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the film follows Amleth (Alexander Skarsgård, and briefly, as a boy, … Continue reading Now Playing — The Northman
High Anxiety (Mel Brooks, 1977). Following hits spoofing Westerns, classic horror, and silent movies, Mel Brooks turned his attention to the oeuvre of Alfred Hitchcock, even consulting with the master himself on the screenplay. In its first half or so, … Continue reading Then Playing — High Anxiety; To Sleep with Anger; The Professionals
I have rarely encountered a film more aptly titled than Everything Everywhere All at Once. The second feature film written and directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (cheekily billed as “The Daniels”) earns that accuracy through its densely complicated … Continue reading Now Playing — Everything Everywhere All at Once
The Ex-Mrs. Bradford (Stephen Roberts, 1936). No one played a well-to-do gent dapperly cavorting through a murder mystery like William Powell. In between turns as Nick Charles, he plays Dr. Lawrence Bradford in this spiked trifle, reuniting with his ex-wife … Continue reading Then Playing — The Ex-Mrs. Bradford; Death on the Nile; Moonfall
Parallel Mothers (Pedro Almodóvar, 2021). Pedro Almodóvar is on solid footing with Parallel Mothers, a film that includes some of his regular preoccupations relating to family, feminism, and the complicated snarl of personal history. He also incorporates considerations of the … Continue reading Then Playing — Parallel Mothers; Drive My Car; The Mitchells vs. the Machines
Free Guy (Shawn Levy, 2021). This high-concept comedy about the dawning sentience of a non-player, bystander character in a Grand Theft Auto–style video game is inane chaos. Ryan Reynolds plays Guy, who evolves into heroism from his assigned role of … Continue reading Then Playing — Free Guy; Attica; Inside Daisy Clover
As an overly devoted watched of the Oscars for more than thirty years, I often complain that the ceremony doesn’t show me anything I haven’t seen before. I guess that particular gripe is off the table for the ninety-fourth annual … Continue reading Oscars Exit the Speed Force
Coffee for Two 