I’ve never particularly felt the need to take a stand on the undeclared battle for geekdom passion supremacy between Star Trek and Star Wars. Maybe that’s because, barring a couple exceptions, neither cosmos-spanning saga has enthralled me the way they have … Continue reading Now Playing: Star Trek Beyond
The idiotic braying of misogynistic, righteous anger that has nipped aggressively and constantly at that ankles of the new reworking of Ghostbusters necessitates an opening statement of opinion on its merits simply as a concept. As a resolute admirer of Ivan Reitman’s original film, I think swapping the genders of the characters donning jumpsuits and bearing proton packs is an inspired hook. If we’re going to continue to grope and stumble through the misty morass of a popular culture that values brand recognition over originality, then at least this simple yet significant twist gives the new Ghostbusters a reason for … Continue reading Now Playing: Ghostbusters
With Swiss Army Man, the directing duo that bills themselves as simply “Daniels” succumb to a very common shortcoming of first-time feature filmmakers: they’re better at showmanship than storytelling. Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan wrote and directed the film, which begin … Continue reading Now Playing: Swiss Army Man
A little more than twenty years ago, Whit Stillman and Jane Austen were hot on the filmmaking circuit at the same time. The former was the writer-director behind a pair of very well-regarded and somewhat atypical indie house hits, both … Continue reading Now Playing: Love & Friendship
Thanks to a rigorous strategy of willful media blindness (which is mightily difficult for me to pull off in the midst of my almost compulsive consumption of the entertainment news and reviews blipping across the internet), I sat down to … Continue reading Now Playing: The Lobster
I think a case can be made that Captain America: Civil War is mistitled. The skirmish promised there is duly presented, with the crummy crossover comic book series with which it shares its name thankfully providing only the barest of inspiration. Where … Continue reading Now Playing: Captain America: Civil War
Everybody Wants Some!!, the new film written and directed by Richard Linklater, is being officially pitched as a spiritual sequel to Dazed and Confused, the belatedly beloved sophomore effort from the filmmaker. Dazed and Confused was something of a dud … Continue reading Now Playing: Everybody Wants Some!!
10 Cloverfield Lane is the feature directorial debut of Dan Trachtenberg, and it credits John Campbell, Matthew Stuecken, and Whiplash filmmaker Damien Chazelle as crafters of the story and screenplay. And yet the name that looms over it is that of producer J.J. Abrams. This could be understandably explained by the studio’s enthusiasm to the film to the contributing creator who presided over the all-time top grossing film at the domestic box office, even if he achieved that particular inside-the-park home run after starting on third base. Instead, 10 Cloverfield Lane feels like it belongs to Abrams because it adheres to his … Continue reading Now Playing: 10 Cloverfield Lane
The Witch opens on a face. Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy), a teen-aged girl is staring forward with a delicate mixture of worry and disbelief as her family is drummed out of a community of the basis of religious views in combat. … Continue reading Now Playing: The Witch
Much as I’m a devoted disciple of the work of the Coen brothers, I can admit there are all sorts of forecastable reasons to expect that a new film they’ve made might not quite work. The susceptibility to recurring flaws isn’t an automatic outcome of having such clear cinematic voices, but Joel and Ethan Coen have committed themselves so thoroughly to a bleakly comic outlook tinged with ironic detachment, a quality often conveyed with self-consciously rambunctious visuals, that certain predictable troubles can easily reoccur. Most noticeably, their viewpoint can manifest as a lack of sincerity that sets a narrative slamming into a … Continue reading Now Playing: Hail, Caesar!
Coffee for Two 