It’s December 31st, the last day of the year, and that means it’s time for me to finally weigh in on my top ten movies of 2014, even though I have already done so twice in critics voting. Top ten lists are always a tricky thing. They’re alive. They breathe, they grow, they evolve; I … Continue reading
“Of all the bad production decisions made in Peter Jackson’s loose adaptation of The Hobbit – gross overuse of CGI, check-list fan service, and a few instances of comically bad casting – the worst by far has been franchising. The Hobbit never needed to be more than one movie; it’s an example of either creative … Continue reading
“These past weeks, the Sony hacking scandal—the single weirdest movie news item of my lifetime, and that’s counting the time WB hired Jesse Eisenberg to play Lex Luthor—evolved from a mere social embarrassment for the studio, to a damper on their bottom line, to a serious threat to the safety of both their employees and … Continue reading
“Tomm Moore’s Song of the Sea might have made a better video game than a motion picture. That’s saying something, because as motion pictures go, it’s an absolutely visceral stunner: you may find yourself wishing you could interact with its characters, live in its vividly realized world, participate in its defining ancestral conflicts. In fact, … Continue reading
“Do you remember that pulse of excitement you felt when New Line and Warner Bros. first announced that they’d be adapting The Hobbit into a movie, a la The Lord of the Rings? Do you recall your anticipation as the project went, year by year, from being an idea to taking one step closer toward … Continue reading
“Before any discussion of Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s mid-season finale (an over exaggeration in terms, if there ever was one) can be broached, I must begin this review by saying “oops.” In all things Kyra Sedgwick, I have been proven false time and again; when it looked like her total appearances on the show would add to … Continue reading
“At times, Top Five feels like a live wire. That thrumming volatility comes as no surprise—it’s a product of Chris Rock’s bluntly indelicate comic inclinations—but damned if the film’s arrival isn’t, for better or worse, the very definition of “timely.” Writer, director and star Rock orchestrates scenes in which he’s beaten on camera by white … Continue reading
“If you’ve been following the sequel pattern in Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s second season, then you probably walked into “The Pontiac Bandit Returns” with the lowest of low expectations. Neither “Halloween II” nor “Lockdown” even came close to touching the excellence of their progenitors; in point of fact, they’re two of the worst episodes in the show’s … Continue reading
“Wild is ripe for easy snark on the page. Just as Cheryl Strayed embarked on her thousand mile sojourn to emotional betterment in 1995, Reese Witherspoon sets out to recreate Strayed’s quest in the pursuit of another Oscar win, what would be her first since 2005’s Walk the Line. It has long been the fashion … Continue reading
“What happens when Jake Peralta’s breathtaking lack of propriety collides with Amy Santiago’s control freak neuroses? “The Road Trip,” perhaps the single best episode in Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s entire second season. That’s high praise in light of “USPIS”, last week’s truly terrific offering, which represents a high point in the show’s sophomore slump. There’s no denying … Continue reading
“The first few minutes of Death Metal Angola don’t feel like the introduction to a documentary. They’re something more akin to the opening sequence of a horror film. We’re presented with a quick lesson on Angola’s history in the 20th century—the 15-year war its people fought to regain their independence from Portugal (ending in 1975), … Continue reading
“How do you review half a movie? Do you just write half of a review? Maybe that’s the right thing to do. Maybe it’s the only intelligent thing to do. But just maybe, nobody should blame The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1, the latest victim of Hollywood’s desire to bleed dry literary adaptations by dragging … Continue reading
A Constant Visual Feast 