Did we need a Saved! for the Facebook and Twitter generation? If Easy A gets remembered for anything apart from Emma Stone’s excellent performance, as well as the supporting turns by Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson, it will be for the social networking metaphor the film presents in the alacrity with which the lies and … Continue reading
Well, I’ll say this for the marketing team behind Game of Thrones— they can’t be accused of false advertising. Baelor and Fire and Blood wrap up the first season of the series, and what a pair of episodes they are. I don’t think I need to warn anyone reading this of imminent spoilers, so with … Continue reading
I’m typically not the person who finds himself in admiration of “found footage” movies; more so than most titles that fit under that umbrella, they’re more slavishly devoted to a formula that doesn’t tend to vary from entry to entry. Naturally, that footage has to get found at some point, so we have a much … Continue reading
A review for Midnight in Paris requires no preamble simply because it’s the best movie Woody Allen has made in years, which alone should be sufficient reason to watch it in light of the director’s limp and joyless recent output. But a review that begins with the suggestion that Midnight in Paris far exceeds the … Continue reading
I don’t know if “live-action anime sci-fi operatic drama” can be considered a genre of its own, but assuming it is a thing, then 2004’s Casshern could well be considered the Citizen Kane of films bearing the same aesthetics and sensibilities. Whether or not that has any meaning whatsoever is up to you, but what’s … Continue reading
J.J. Abrams is short of a single meticulously crafted script before he creates his masterpiece; he knows how to make an entertaining, fulfilling movie that resonates with his audiences, but each of his cinematic endeavors has been hamstrung by virtue of lacking a highly polished, impeccable piece of writing that elevates his work from “good” … Continue reading
In this exciting installment, we discuss A Golden Crown, You Win or You Die, and The Pointy End. With episodes six, seven, and eight of Game of Thrones, Benioff and Weiss have brought out the proverbial fan, ostensibly so that the shit introduced in the above trifecta of episodes has something to hit. And hit … Continue reading
Gore Verbinski got his kid’s movie in our spaghetti Westerns and neo noirs, and the results are surprisingly excellent. Rango, Verbinski’s 2011 animated story of a chameleon who lives in a terrarium and possesses aspirations of stage acting, is a gem, madcap and nutty and palatable for kids but most rewarding for movie lovers and … Continue reading
Anyone who’s remotely acquainted with cinematic hitmen knows, or should know, that as a rule they’re often at best isolated and at worst emotionally destitute and cripplingly alone as they soldier along a path through life that’s solitary by nature. Unsurprising, maybe; hitmen, after all, deal in the art of killing for money, though rarely … Continue reading
A Constant Visual Feast 