“Hey now! Howard Stark’s bad babies are finally getting names, and the eponymous doomsday device in “The Blitzkrieg Button” doesn’t disappoint. Is that a great name or what? Listening to Dominic Cooper exposit over its function proves the moniker all the more apt, though punk rock aficionados may be pretty bummed to learn that the … Continue reading
“After a brief absence and a criminally unfunny opening sequence, “Defense Rests” gets Brooklyn Nine-Nine on the right track, with a trio of overarching plot developments… but man is that opener a letdown. Seriously, ants? That’s what we get after skipping a Sunday in the dead of winter? Ants? What, are rodent infestations just too … Continue reading
“A few weeks ago, word shimmied down the digital grapevine that Hollywood has cast the lead role in its adaptation of the Ghost in the Shell manga, and brace yourself: she’s white. (More accurately, she’s not Rinko Kikuchi, whose name has been bandied about in the press in both pre and post-casting rumblings.) Someone, somewhere, … Continue reading
“At 86 minutes in length, Song One feels long. Occasionally, a warped sense of time and duration can be of benefit to a film – last year’s Ida doesn’t breeze by, and it’s all the better for it – but in the case of Kate Barker-Froyland’s debut as director, the effect renders her work frustrating. Song … Continue reading
“In R100, Takafumi Katayama (Nao Ōmori), a workaholic father burdened by loneliness over his wife’s catatonic state, decides to sign up for a one-year contract with a gentleman’s bondage club. Membership comes with a few decidedly inconvenient stipulations; most notably, he must live all 365 days in constant anxiety over where, and when, he might … Continue reading
“Who is this dashing, mustachioed Mortdecai chap? An art dealer, you say? A man of high breeding with impeccable taste in paintings and wines? A scalawag, a ne’er-do-well, a man of shady intentions? That clears things up a bit, but still, who isMortdecai? A putz, a schlemiel, a real screwup, an oaf dressed in aristocrat’s … Continue reading
“The Wedding Ringer begins with a tracking shot that could almost be called “bravura.” The camera starts in a kitchen, following a dish’s journey from a prep station, to a waiter’s tray, to a crowded hall where a wedding reception is in full swing. Standing at the center of the soirée is Kevin Hart, who, … Continue reading
“The delightful byproduct of living in a post-Girls pop-culture-verse is that even if you don’t care for Lena Dunham, or if you find her creative output too preciously self-effacing (or self-aware, or self-interested, or any other self-[blank] adjective you can muster), her influence is likely to inspire other media that does tickle your fancy. Case … Continue reading
“Arthouse fare nestled within the American heartland is, and probably always shall be, considered Terrence Malick’s territory. Hence early analogies drawn between Andrea Pallaoro’s excellent debut,Medeas, and the American maestro’s works, currently enjoying a period of serious creative vitality. But contrasting Pallaoro (or any perceived student of Malick’s style, from Shane Carruth to Leah Meyerhoff) … Continue reading
“Another week, another glowing MacGuffin; Peggy’s on a roll, recovering these mad scientist gizmos. The ride continues, though in “Time and Tide,” it grows bumpier thanks to ghosts from the past and a near-miss with reckless ambition. But running roughshod happens to do Agent Carter a few favors in the departments of character and story, … Continue reading
“Amazing how Brooklyn Nine-Nine can go from being a sitcom to an earnest cop drama with a single line of dialogue. “Payback” isn’t about the NYPD’s longstanding record of institutional discrimination, but when Captain Holt regales Santiago about his first partner in the force (such as Holt can regale anyone about anything), we hear the … Continue reading
“Like 2008’s Taken and 2012’s Taken 2 before it, Taken 3’s meat-and-potatoes approach to filming action is about as basic as action filmmaking can be: no fancy pants martial arts tussles, no daring stunts, no gimmicks. There’s only growling, punching, and shooting, served upon a bed of collateral damage and suffused with car chases. Thus, … Continue reading
“A humming undercurrent of enthusiasm runs throughout the super-sized premiere of Agent Carter, Marvel’s latest small-screen venture; from start to finish, it’s clear as day that the creative types driving the show know what they’re doing, and that they’re overjoyed to be doing it. Unlike Agents of S.H.I.E.LD., which took the better part of its … Continue reading
“A film that uses DJ Caruso’s career as a reference point is a film that starts out in dire straits indeed. Hence Paul Solet’s Dark Summer, a horror riff onDisturbia, which is itself a riff on Rear Window. Like Caruso, Solet is using Hitchcock’s work as his blueprint without acknowledging the connection; it’s a small … Continue reading
“Sometimes, a sitcom is just a sitcom, whether it’s good or bad; that’s true even of sitcoms as good as Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and in the show’s second go ‘round, no episode proves that better than “Beach House.” In twenty minutes and change, nothing of consequence to the season’s long term plots or themes actually transpires. … Continue reading
“Zombies on a boat. We’ve reached the second apex of undead lore (Lucio Fulci’s zombie fighting a shark being the first—obviously). REC 4: Apocalypse is, after all, the fourth installment in the REC franchise, a series that’s defined largely by surprise zombie bites and graphically rent flesh (often in that order). None of these films are … Continue reading
“If Selma can be described in one word, it’s “fiery.” Biopics are typically such rote, thankless exercises in filmmaking that the idea anybody could make one colored with brushstrokes this passionate feels contrary. But there’s no better way to characterize what Ava DuVernay has accomplished in her dramatic chronicle of the 1965 voting rights marches … Continue reading
A Constant Visual Feast 