There were many reasons to celebrate Creed, led by Michael B. Jordan’s exemplary performance as second generation professional boxer Adonis Johnson, who would eventually overcome emotional-fueled reluctance claim the name of his departed father. The other aspect of the film … Continue reading Now Playing — Creed II
Arriving five years after director Steve McQueen took 12 Years a Slave to the top prize at the Academy Awards, Widows is a curious follow-up. It’s not simply that it doesn’t have the heft (in its basics, anyway) as the … Continue reading Now Playing — Widows
I fully acknowledged being tickled that Luca Guadagnino’s follow-up feature to the tender, elegant Call By Your Name is the the precise opposite, in almost every respect. Suspiria is officially a remake of the 1977 horror film of the same … Continue reading Now Playing — Suspiria
Damien Chazelle’s First Man is a remarkable technical feat. The filmmaker takes the unofficial once-per-generation challenge to intensify the verisimilitude in the cinematic depiction of space travel and rises to it. The title refers to the historic 1969 touchdown on … Continue reading Now Playing — First Man
Drew Goddard’s feature directorial debut, The Cabin in the Woods, has aged very nicely for me. The film’s impish deconstruction of the horror genre was fun from the start, but the layers of cunning stirred in me a long-lasting appreciation for … Continue reading Now Playing — Bad Times at the El Royale
I haven’t dug into any interviews with Tamara Jenkins to learn the insider story of why over a decade passed between her last film and her latest, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find the reason serves as … Continue reading Now Playing — Private Life
It is now almost quaint to think of A Star is Born as a signature example of Hollywood’s tendency to repeat itself, and yet that’s exactly the status bestowed upon the showbiz tale by the time Barbra Streisand and Kris … Continue reading Now Playing — A Star is Born
A Simple Favor is precisely the film Paul Feig needed at this point in his directorial career. The filmmaker will always have an honored place in my personal pantheon thanks to his efforts on the practically perfect television series Freaks … Continue reading Now Playing — A Simple Favor
Younger generations could be forgiven if they were filled with fury over the planet that has been knocked into disrepair for them. I truly believe that history will incredulously record that the greater political society knew of all the ways … Continue reading Now Playing — Inventing Tomorrow
Any documentarian depicting a current, ongoing social hardship has an inherent added challenge in the filmmaking process. Simply put, reality doesn’t always play along. The desire to wrap up stories with some level of finality — not necessarily tidily, but … Continue reading Now Playing — Crime + Punishment
