“Another year, another Academy Awards ceremony. Funny, isn’t it, how every three hundred and sixty five days we go through the same ritualized process of spurning the Oscars and then gluing ourselves to the television the day they air; we like to pretend that we’re above all the pomp and circumstance, but for better or … Continue reading
“After suffering from post-Twilight defanging since 2008, vampires are on the mend. Last year’s one-two punch of A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night and Only Lovers Left Alive, along with films like Neil Jordan’s underappreciated 2013 joint Byzantium, helped creatures of the night reclaim their teeth on the big screen bit by bit; these … Continue reading
“You don’t need to watch John Boorman’s 1987 comedy drama Hope and Glory to vibe with its sequel, the decades-in-the-making Queen and Country. That’s probably the greatest feat Boorman pulls off with this follow-up to his unassuming Oscar nominee: walk into the film blind, and short of feeling like you’re up the Thames without a … Continue reading
“Remember when spy movies blended melodramatic international intrigue with wacky gadgetry, high adventure, and the good breeding of the gentlemen class? Remember when they weren’t po-faced efforts pressured, perhaps by unreasonable audience demands, into being grounded and gritty, plus any number of tepid industry buzzwords? Matthew Vaughn does, and for that matter so does comic … Continue reading
“Here’s some sound advice for when the zombie apocalypse arrives: surround yourself with Australians. Assuming you’re not one of the first to turn in the world-ending plague of undeath, being in the company of folks from the land Down Under is a surefire way to ensure your safety once your friends’ and neighbors’ shambling corpses … Continue reading
“Funny, isn’t it, that Agent Carter focuses so much on the quest to retrieve Howard Stark’s bad babies, yet we know so little about them; we don’t know what they are, and with a couple of outside exceptions (a’la Stark’s nitramene formula) we don’t know what they do. In “Snafu,”e though, the babies almost become … Continue reading
“Agent Carter has been building to “A Sin to Err” all season long; it’s the moment where the walls have Peggy corralled. She’s pretty much on her own and without a single person, other than Jarvis, to call “friend,” though that more or less sums up her dynamic over the course of the show. But … Continue reading
“There’s nothing wrong with talking to your pets. But if they start talking back, well, that’s a cause for concern. Such is the magical realist scenario director Marjane Satrapi explores in The Voices. Jerry (Ryan Reynolds) is an upbeat and peculiar factory worker who spends his time at home having conversations with his cat, an … Continue reading
“This close. You were this close, Sergei Bodrov, this close to finding the right ratio of badness to goodness—this close to churning out a ham and cheese sandwich to rival the likes of Beastmaster, Willow and Hawk the Slayer. Bodrov’s Seventh Son is cut from the same cloth, an ’80s schlockfest made in the wrong … Continue reading
“Where’s the line between lazy referentialism and delightful homage? It’s somewhere in the script of “Windbreaker City,” the latest sequel installment in Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s second season; nearly the entire episode is built on nods to Die Hard, but it makes so many of them at such a rapid clip that the effect conveys enthusiasm rather … Continue reading
“Well, here’s a thoroughly unexpected concept for a movie: a romantic comedy cast in the shadow of America’s involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. On paper, Sean Mullin’s Amira & Sam sounds like a dicey prospect, but in practice, the marriage between its lighthearted mode and the United States’ contentious overseas campaigns works beautifully. Mullin’s film … Continue reading
“When people think of Massachusetts’ burgeoning movie industry, they probably think first of gritty, unforgiving gangster films, of severe accents, of reluctant geniuses, of Ben Affleck. But the Bay State has offered more to cinema than just chronicles of working class stiffs, real crime allegory, or some combination of Matt and Ben: this is the … Continue reading
“Why can’t we all just get along? It should be easier than easy to vibe with people from other backgrounds than our own; there should be no obstacles or roadblocks segregating us or just plain old keeping us divided. But it’s 2015, and racial harmony is still a distant dream the whole world over. Whether … Continue reading
“It has taken five episodes for Agent Carter to strip Hayley Atwell down to her undergarments. In another network’s hands, a moment like this might have felt exploitative; beyond cheap thrills, there might have been no good reason for the peepshow. But in ABC’s hands, the scene, which occurs roughly a third of the way … Continue reading
“Anton Chekhov was a real triple threat: while we all know him best for his accomplishments as a dramaturge and an author, he also practiced medicine while making his numerous artistic achievements on the side. “Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress,” he once wrote. That’s about as close to baller as … Continue reading
A Constant Visual Feast 