Category: Film

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Bird, Coon and Skousen, Garrone, Huston, Paradisi

Dan Seeger

Tomorrowland (Brad Bird, 2015). There’s nobility in Brad Bird’s oft-stated aspiration to use Tomorrowland to reanimate the futuristic optimism of his youth, countering the long meander into an endless procession of sci-fi dystopias. Intent is one thing. Execution is quite another. Bird’s second outing as a director of live-action features is a muddled, overbearing squawk of condescending nonsense that too often barrels headlong into disastrous inane storytelling choices. As a grizzled, grumpy outcast of a once-proud secret nation of innovators, George Clooney is in the mode of hammy, insistent twitches that rightly earned him derision when he made his initial … Continue reading Bird, Coon and Skousen, Garrone, Huston, Paradisi

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Now Playing: Arrival

Dan Seeger

There’s so much to dig into when discussing the new film Arrival. The intricacies of the storytelling, the jarringly smart manipulation of the film narrative grammar, and the resonance of deeply moving themes are all worth topics, compelling pieces of evidence in the argument of the work’s special accomplishment. And yet the element of the film that made the strongest impression on me — that convinces me it is the linchpin that makes it all work — is the one that I suspect and worry will be overlooked by many, convinced that it is in service of a bigger picture … Continue reading Now Playing: Arrival

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Then Playing: Heaven’s Gate

Dan Seeger

I usually reserve the longer reviews for films still playing in theaters, but sometimes a title I’ve caught up on later merits a few extra words. Like a sizable portion of the U.S. electorate, I’ve been anxiously seeking out distractions for, oh, say, the past week or so. My natural instinct is to seek solace in the movie house, in all its many iterations. As a general rule, the more time kept away from ruminating on the political toxins burdening the atmosphere, the better. So when the opportunity arose to sit before the three hour and thirty-nine minute cut of Michael … Continue reading Then Playing: Heaven’s Gate

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Now Playing: Certain Women

Dan Seeger

Director Kelly Reichardt specializes in a quiet attention to the small. In general that serves her well, making her films stand out with their unhurried emotional arcs. Whether tracking the sad plight of homeless woman traveling with her dog or a batch of weary, nineteenth century pioneers, Reichardt’s steadfast refusal to whirlwind up contrived drama invites attention to the more intimate facets of her stories, those that nestle in close to the bones of the characters. In their sharpest moment, Reichardt’s films unearth truths that most fiction storytelling rushes recklessly over. Admittedly, that can make the resulting works feel slight, … Continue reading Now Playing: Certain Women

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Now Playing: Doctor Strange

Dan Seeger

Doctor Strange is an especially odd entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, though not exactly for the reasons that would be expected from the perpetually trippy source material. Yes, the film sets itself apart by embracing the reality-bending possibilities inherent in the adapting the adventures of the master of the mystic arts to the big screen at a time of unparalleled CGI artistry, but that’s not precisely what I’m referring to. I don’t recall any other time when I’ve encountered a film that veers so dramatically in terms of its engagement. Doctor Strange is often dull, until the moments arrive, … Continue reading Now Playing: Doctor Strange

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Greatish Performances #28

Dan Seeger

#28 — Kevin Kline as Dave Kovic (and Bill Mitchell) in Dave (Ivan Reitman, 1993) I default to cynicism, enjoying the safety of a reflexive irony when it comes to the most important matters. Believing in institutions — or in the will of the people in a shaky, overlarge republic — is a pathway to disappointment. Isn’t it? I am consistently braced for some sort of collapse, a withering of our sprawling, gnarled tree of humanity. As a citizen of the U.S., I am a patriot, albeit of the partly-cloudy variety defined by Sarah Vowell. The guarded suspicion of that … Continue reading Greatish Performances #28

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Now Playing: Moonlight

Dan Seeger

In its particulars, the new film Moonlight comes perilously close to the sort of lurid fetishization of misery with the financially-downtrodden portions of the broader African-American community that makes films such as Precious into tedious slogs that simultaneously congratulate and exploit liberal empathy while compounding stereotypes. Within this story of a young black male who struggles with matter of identity as he grows into manhood there is a drug dealer with a heart of gold (Mahershala Ali), an addicted mother (Naomie Harris), a supposed intimate friend who delivers the ultimate betrayal (played by different actors at different ages, but by … Continue reading Now Playing: Moonlight

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From the Archive: Hear No Evil

Dan Seeger

This was written in late March of 1993, putting it near the end of my five years as an undergraduate college student and my three years as a film critic on radio station WWSP-FM. As for the latter experience, the weariness was clearly starting to show, at least when it came to sitting through the steady procession of drab thrillers that followed the runaway success of The Silence of the Lambs.  Since I use the Academy Awards as an entryway into the review, it’s worth noting that the four freshly-named acting winners at this point were Al Pacino, Emma Thompson, … Continue reading From the Archive: Hear No Evil

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Fly High By My Window At Night

Dan Seeger

Thanks to the bends of the calendar, it’s been a couple years since Halloween has fallen on a day that this digital space didn’t have regularly scheduled programming. It’s time to revive an old tradition. These are things that have scared me…. Yes, there’s a Stephen King entry. There’s always a Stephen King entry. That’s how I once rolled. “The Mangler” is an exceedingly silly short story. I know that. I knew that at the time I read it. And yet this tale of a demonically possessed industrial laundry press left me highly rattled when I first read it, probably … Continue reading Fly High By My Window At Night