A couple films back, I read someone’s observations on the movie multiplex dominance of Marvel Entertainment. They listed off a few of the business and creative decisions that could be plausibly considered key contributors to the success of the studio … Continue reading Now Playing — Black Widow
In his new feature, No Sudden Move, Steven Soderbergh follows the most fundamental rules of modern film noir. The film takes place in a mid-century era of the American past, at roughly the same time when classic Hollywood film noirs … Continue reading Now Playing — No Sudden Move
Plan B (Natalie Morales, 2021). To invoke the movie algebra that feels inescapable in this instance, the second feature directed by Natalie Morales is Never Rarely Sometimes Always put into a polynomial equation with Booksmart to solve for the x … Continue reading Then Playing — Plan B; This Is the Sea; Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World
In The Tomorrow War, Chris Pratt plays Dan Forester, a former military man who has settled into a cozy domestic life, teaching high school biology and hosting bustling holiday gatherings where he and his immediately family ignore all their guests … Continue reading Now Playing — The Tomorrow War
These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. When high-powered director Robert Altman presided over an adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye, one of … Continue reading The Art of the Sell — The Long Goodbye movie poster
I remember going to the theater for Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, the feature film debut of Guy Ritchie. Its U.S. release was in the spring of 1999, when indie-inclined screens were still wallpapered with all manner of gruff, … Continue reading The Unwatchables — The Gentlemen
Blithe Spirit (David Lean, 1945). Adapted from Noël Coward’s 1941 play of the same name, Blithe Spirit is a mere wisp of a movie comedy that generates domestic drama from supernatural falderal. Writer Charles Condomine (Rex Harrison) invites a daffy … Continue reading Then Playing — Blithe Spirit; Layer Cake; Algiers
Years before Lin-Manuel Miranda cemented his place in the pantheon of musical theater by creating an unlikely sensation with the adaptation of a weighty historical biography, he worked with playwright Quiara Alegría Hudes to tell a story that took place … Continue reading Now Playing — In the Heights
I argue, with some regularity, that modern Hollywood horror films falter in large part because they don’t take their scenarios seriously. The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It has me thinking I might be wrong about that. The new … Continue reading Now Playing — The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. One of the main things I miss about haunting my local movie theater is the procession of … Continue reading The Art of the Sell — Where the Wild Things Are trailer
Coffee for Two 