And so the first half of The Walking Dead‘s second season ends with a bang, and not some pathetic whimper. (Note: If you haven’t seen this episode, don’t bother reading past this point; the episode’s climax is central to this article.) If the writing staff puts their heads together and does nothing but produce episodes … Continue reading
Coulrophobics, rejoice: Álex de la Iglesia has made your Citizen Kane. The Last Circus marks the scary clown film to end all scary clown films, a high-volume nightmare factory for those who suffer from a crippling fear of tumblers, jesters, jokers, and harlequins with painted faces and outrageous costumes. In theory, it’s also a bit … Continue reading
When Jason Segel capitalized on the critical and financial success of his breakout hit Forgetting Sarah Marshall three years ago by securing the green-light to write his own Muppets film, my world stopped turning for a day. Muppets? In the 2010s? And envisioned by a man who not only represents a perfect human foil to everyone’s … Continue reading
Limitless might have added up to something excellent instead of well-made fluff entertainment if Neil Burger cared to consider the ramifications of his film’s basic conceit and chose to punish his hero more, rather than reward him. Maybe that’s not being fair to Burger, because Limitless isn’t a bad film at all. It’s just not … Continue reading
If Sunday’s installment of The Walking Dead says anything, it’s that even Lori deserves some sympathy and maybe even redemption. Lori, for a boatload of reasons, has been saddled with the honor of being the show’s most well-despised character through and through; she’s duplicitous, she’s “bitchy”, and she’s just plain old hard to like. I … Continue reading
We live in an odd world where the Lars Von Triers and Gaspar Noes come under degrees of attack for the overt depictions of violence and anti-humanity portrayed in their pictures while Steve McQueen receives almost universal praise for offering imagery that’s no less brutal and discomforting. This isn’t, by the way, an attack on … Continue reading
Since I first started this blog in 2009, it’s undergone a number of geneses both superficial and substantive. For the most part these have been surface changes– those of you who have been here from the start likely can attest to the ridiculous number of face-lifts this site has enjoyed before recently, when I settled … Continue reading
I always knew I’d end up revisiting the essay I wrote on Pixar and gender roles in 2009; it was always a matter of time. Their projected 2012 release, at the time titled The Bear and the Bow before the lauded studio cut the name down to Brave for those of us who appreciate brevity, caused something of … Continue reading
Alexander Payne strikes me as the sort of person who’s incapable of making a bad film. Limited body of work aside, critical success is critical success (which is to say nothing of Payne’s commercial victories in Sideways and About Schmidt), and with his darkly satirical examinations of contemporary American culture Payne has established for himself … Continue reading
Full disclosure: I took a break from writing about The Walking Dead last week entirely due to Cherokee Rose being so utterly boring. When TV critics raise eyebrows at the progression of the series, it’s precisely due to the sloppy writing and pacing running rampant through 2.4; very literally, nothing happens throughout the entire forty minute block that … Continue reading
You’ve seen movies like Attack the Block before– movies where an enemy-of-all emerges and threatens to destroy, devour, or dominate all life until being defeated by a thoroughly ordinary hero or group of heroes– yet Joe Cornish’ directorial debut stands out as one of the year’s most thoroughly original and memorable releases regardless. Largely, this … Continue reading
(Author’s foreword: The following essay draws inspiration from Rob Ager’s excellent two-part series on Youtube regarding Childs’ status at the end of John Carpenter’s The Thing. The two clips can be found here and here. My intention as author of this piece is to argue for the film’s place in overarching cinematic canon, and to … Continue reading
Red State may be best summed up as the type of movie made by the type of person who watches lots of movies. I’m willing to argue the point; Kevin Smith clearly has something specific on his mind that in point of fact does not refer back to movies at all, but rather the sobering realities … Continue reading
Beats, Rhymes, & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest could signal Michael Rappaport’s transition from actor to real-deal documentary filmmaker. Blending both an overview of hip hop history dating back to the late 80s and an in-depth dissection of the conflicts that ultimately drove apart the eponymous monumentally influential rap group, Beats, Rhymes, & … Continue reading
Save the Last One suffers from one major problem: telegraphing. I rather liked the episode overall, and feel that it keeps up the narrative push and character development which made Bloodletting so good, but 2.3 gives away a pretty shattering end-of-episode reveal in its opening scrawl. I don’t know that that particular misstep ruins the episode, but Phil Abraham’s … Continue reading
A Constant Visual Feast 