Tag: new movie review

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Now Playing: Okja

Dan Seeger

The title character of the new film Okja is a “super-pig.” In the bizarre, futuristic (though set in modern-day) vision of writer-director Bong Joon-Ho, an American corporation launches a publicity stunt competition to have odd, porcine animals — supposedly discovered in Chile, though that assertion is suspect from the jump — raised by individuals scattered all across the globe. After a decade, the creatures are to be evaluated in a glorified pageant before beings added to the assembly line of food production. Bong renders his story at a mad careen that resembles an inability to entirely setting on a general … Continue reading Now Playing: Okja

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Now Playing: It Comes at Night

Dan Seeger

I feel compelled to write about the audience I was in midst of when I saw the film It Comes at Night. The second feature from writer-director Trey Edward Shults, It Comes at Night is being positioned as a horror film for promotional purposes. That’s entirely fair. All the elements are in place, including a constantly mounting sense of dread, allusions to a devastating and unexplained phenomenon that has ravaged the populace, and a wary appraisal of the intrinsic darkness of desperate people. And yet the film is primarily notable for its colossal restraint more than its vivid shocks. In … Continue reading Now Playing: It Comes at Night

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Now Playing: Wonder Woman

Dan Seeger

AT LAST, IN A WORLD TORN BY THE HATREDS AND WARS OF MEN, APPEARS A WOMAN TO WHOM THE PROBLEMS  AND FEATS OF MEN ARE MERE CHILD’S PLAY — A WOMAN WHOSE IDENTITY IS KNOWN TO NONE, BUT WHOSE SENSATIONAL FEATS ARE OUTSTANDING IN A FAST-MOVING WORLD! WITH A HUNDRED TIMES THE AGILITY AND STRENGTH OF OUR BEST MALE ATHLETES AND STRONGEST WRESTLERS, SHE APPEARS AS THOUGH FROM NOWHERE TO AVENGE AND INJUSTICE OR RIGHT A WRONG! AS LOVELY AS APHRODITE — AS WISE AS ATHENA — WITH THE SPEED OF MERCURY AND THE STRENGTH OF HERCULES — SHE IS … Continue reading Now Playing: Wonder Woman

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Now Playing — Alien: Covenant

Dan Seeger

In space, it is said, no one can hear you scream. While I watched Alien: Covenant, I started to wonder if it was possible to hear aggressive eye-rolling into the middle of a booming movie theater. The latest attempt to wring a few more dollars out of enduring nostalgia for the 1979 sci-fi/horror film — or, more likely, the inferior 1986 sci-fi/action sequel — returns Ridley Scott to the director’s chair, continuing the eradication of goodwill that he began with Prometheus. That prequel effort to the franchise Scott inadvertently launched a lifetime ago trafficked in pretentious, exploratory mumbo jumbo and disconnected … Continue reading Now Playing — Alien: Covenant

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Now Playing: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Dan Seeger

It will be very strange when the Guardians of the Galaxy show up, as promised, in the upcoming third Avengers film, tagged Infinity War. I offer that observation as acknowledgment of the uniqueness of writer-director James Gunn’s contribution to the swelling Marvel Cinematic Universe. The revolution of the Marvel movie model is the transference of the interconnectedness of comic book sagas to the big screen, and the studio has been hitting that hard in recent efforts. Each separate movie has its own strengths and weaknesses, but a significant part of what defines them is their placement in the bigger pictures. Individual … Continue reading Now Playing: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

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Now Playing: Kong: Skull Island

Dan Seeger

When sitting before a modern aspiring blockbuster, I often feel like I know what the pitch must have sounded like as the filmmakers cajoled a major studio into giving them piles of money to build on vital piece of the cinematic franchise. In the case of Kong: Skull Island, I instead found myself thinking about what must have enticing the actors to sign on the bottom line, beyond the promise of filthy lucre, of course. What kind of exuberance director Jordan Vogt-Roberts and his collaborators must have brought to meetings in which they regaled the potential onscreen talent with the promise … Continue reading Now Playing: Kong: Skull Island

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Now Playing: Logan

Dan Seeger

I’m glad Logan doesn’t end with a bonus scene plopped in the midst or at the end of the closing credits. In the cinematic landscape that is slowly, steadily being engulfed by the mighty Marvel model of moviemaking, the choice is novel enough to prompt a flurry of online interviews that call upon director James Mangold to explain himself. He has a few different explanations, slightly nuanced from each other, but the crux of it is always the same, and it speaks to precisely why I so appreciate the choice. Logan is — being blunt about it — a real movie … Continue reading Now Playing: Logan

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Now Playing: Get Out

Dan Seeger

Sometimes the instinctual filing of a film into a single genre proves woefully inadequate. Get Out, the feature directorial debut of Jordan Peele, is a horror film. On the surface of it, that is clear and almost indisputable. It moves with rhythms familiar from a fleet of jolting predecessors, down to the particulars of a long drive down a highway book-ended by dense forest and a comic relief best pal who seems poised to somehow save the day.  There’s a haunted past and a slow accumulation of menace. As a horror film, Get Out is proficient and engaging. It is … Continue reading Now Playing: Get Out

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Now Playing: 20th Century Women

Dan Seeger

20th Century Women, the third feature from director Mike Mills, raids his own history in compelling fashion. He has employed this creative tactic before. Though Mills earned some praise for his debut, Thumbsucker, it was his sophomore effort, Beginners, that stirred more effusive plaudits on the way to securing an Academy Award for Christopher Plummer. The latter effort was heavily autobiographical, drawn from Mills’s experience with a father who came out of the closet late in life. 20th Century Women turns its attention to the other figure that looms above Mills on the family tree. Set in 1979, the film follows Jamie (Lucas … Continue reading Now Playing: 20th Century Women