These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. What a strange, innocent time it was, when movie theater operators first unrolled the teaser posters for … Continue reading The Art of the Sell — “The Dark Knight” movie poster
Tortilla Flat (Victor Fleming, 1942). Not long after presiding over Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz in the same calendar year, director Victor Fleming went far more small-scale with this loose adaptation of a typically scruffy John … Continue reading Playing Catch-Up — Tortilla Flat; Serenity; The Meg
As the new version of Dumbo soar into theaters, it seems a long lifetime since a new directorial effort from Tim Burton was cause for excitement. When I was crafting reviews for my college radio station in the early nineteen-nineties, … Continue reading From the Archive — Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
It’s not all that unusual for a filmmaker to establish themself as a vibrant new voice within their first couple of features. But I can’t think of another recent instance in which a creator who was already a known quantity … Continue reading Now Playing — Us
Tomb Raider (Roar Uthaug, 2018). I saw both films that cast Angelina Jolie as adventurer Lara Croft at the time of their original releases, and I don’t remember a second of either one. I suspect the same fate awaits Tomb … Continue reading Playing Catch-Up — Tomb Raider; Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom; Red Sparrow
I’m entirely sincere when I note it’s pleasing that so many media outlets reported on the surprise arrival of the first child of a movie biz power couple by neglecting the papa. In a culture that still routinely refers to … Continue reading From the Archive — The Squid and the Whale
Skyscraper (Rawson Marshall Thurber, 2018). A combat veteran and former hostage rescue team operative, Will Sawyer (Dwayne Johnson) is working as a security expert when he’s recruited to identify the shortcomings in a state of the art building in Hong … Continue reading Playing Catch-Up — Skyscraper; Won’t You Be My Neighbor?; Teen Titans Go! To the Movies
I’m not sure I’ve watched more than a couple minutes of Transamerica since my first viewing, and I’m skeptical about how well it holds up. If nothing else, it’s clearer by now that casting a cisgendered actress in a transgendered … Continue reading From the Archive — Transamerica
As a longtime (if occasionally lapsed) fan of superhero comic books, I’ve had mixed emotions about the mighty Marvel age of cinema. Close as it has sometimes come, the Marvel Studios machine hasn’t yet made a wholly satisfying movie, in part … Continue reading Now Playing — Captain Marvel
These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. Determining the ownership of the vision behind movie advertising is tricky. There are some filmmakers who have … Continue reading The Art of the Sell — “The Limey” movie poster
Coffee for Two 