At a time when a former (some would say current) entertainer has become the official Presidential face of one of the most powerful countries in the world, a movie – that most classic of American entertainment – from last year now feels like a harbinger of Donald Trump’s America. Though the script was written well before the batshit craziness otherwise known as the election of 2016, Todd Phillips’ War Dogs offers up perverse depictions of not only Trumpian figures but also the paradoxical aspects of American culture – specifically the mythological tradition of the American Dream – that have allowed for such megalomaniacs of excess to attain success in this country.  

Continue reading “WAR DOGS (Todd Phillips): Perverting the American Dream” →

One of a critic’s imperative responsibilities is to retain some form of objectivity in their analyses. Subjective taste will of course always partially influence opinion, but those tasked with critiquing for the benefit of the general public should strive to value that which can be justified—or at the very least explained—to others in their proclaimed judgements.

Continue reading “A Weekend in the Cinema: GOING IN STYLE” →

Kong: Skull Island shares traits with both of the last two weekends’ slates of releases: like Get Out two weeks ago, it’s basically the sole offering of interest this weekend; and like last weekend – but unlike Get Out, unfortunately – this lone offering did not offer moviegoers much of a reason to leave their houses to hit the local cinema.

Continue reading “A Weekend in the Cinema: KONG: SKULL ISLAND (and more on LOGAN)” →

For much of my life, I’ve made a concerted effort to see wide release movies in their opening weekends. Though rival studios only really focus on one element when choosing release dates – $$$$$ – unintentional connections can still be forced made between the flicks because most contemporaneous art tends to comment on shared factors intrinsic to the time and environment in which they’re produced. As such, I shall attempt to explore these ideas – BRIEFLY, I swear – every Monday through the lens of the weekend’s slate after having the opportunity to see them all (within reason). Due to their different release dates from city to city, independent films will be excluded from this series, which I’m dubbing “A Weekend in the Cinema” (STEPHEN SONDHEIM/A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC REFERENCE ALERT!!!). Without further ado…

All three (or I guess four) of March 3rd’s wide releases suffer from flawed screenplays that fail to transcend the more artistically restrictive conventions of their chosen genres. Logan is the biggest and also probably the best, less a testament to its (disappointing) quality and more a reflection of the overwhelming turpitude of these offerings…

Continue reading “A Weekend in the Cinema: LOGAN; TABLE 19; BEFORE I FALL; THE SHACK (kind of)” →

THIS WEEK’S LINEUP
Dying Laughing (Lloyd Stanton / Paul Toogood) / The Last Laugh (Ferne Pearlstein)
Catfight (Onur Turkel) / Fist Fight (Richie Keen)
The Girl with All the Gifts (Colm McCarthy)
I Am Michael (Justin Kelly)
The Last Word (Mark Pellington)
My Scientology Movie (John Dower)
Song to Song (Terrence Malick)
Wolves (Bart Freundlich)

Continue reading “Movie Roundup 3/3-22 (Tweet-of-Consciousness)” →

After looking at the slate of wide releases for this past weekend, I initially decided to skip my recently launched “A Weekend in the Cinema” series out of a sheer lack of desire to see more than one of the movies (no offense to Collide and Rock Dog – an animated flick literally about a rock-and-roll playing dog – but like, nah b)…that is, until I actually saw the sole offering of interest, Get Out.

Continue reading “A Weekend in the Cinema: GET OUT” →