As a longtime devotee of might Marvel mags, I am familiar with the Chinese hero who is known to be a master of kung fu. In the lead-up to the character making his debut on the big screen, I still … Continue reading Now Playing — Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
During a time when he was beset by controversy — the type of phony controversy manufactured by the right wing with the relentlessness that the Hershey company brings to the production of chocolate treats, but controversy nonetheless — James Gunn … Continue reading Now Playing — The Suicide Squad
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
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
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
I fully understand the wisdom in adjusting expectations ahead of a viewing of Godzilla vs. Kong. No matter how gleefully retrospective analyzers of film can employ weighty themes of nuclear proliferation and malicious colonialism onto the inaugural screen appearance of … Continue reading Now Playing — Godzilla vs. Kong
When journalist Jessica Bruder toiled away on her book Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century, I doubt a big-screen adaptation felt like a probably outcome. Bruder’s reportage was on a modern brand of itinerant living, practiced especially by older … Continue reading Now Playing — Nomadland
Judas and the Black Messiah is a mightily ambitious undertaking. Directed by Shaka King, the film has the dual focus implied by the title. Judas is Bill O’Neal (Lakeith Stanfield), a petty criminal who’s picked up by the authorities after … Continue reading Now Playing — Judas and the Black Messiah
Coffee for Two 