“It should come as a surprise that It Follows, 2015’s buzziest horror offering, is directed by David Robert Mitchell. Mitchell made his debut in 2010 with the indie teen drama The Myth of the American Sleepover, so the leap to horror feels like a gear shift. But watching the two films in succession, there’s a … Continue reading
“Jean-Luc Godard has made his new film, Goodbye to Language, in much the same spirit as Tarō Gomi’s seminal children’s book Everyone Poops: no matter what differences may set us apart from one another, we’re all united through our undeniable human need to defecate. It’s the greatest of equalizers.” (Via Paste Magazine.)
“Once upon a time, Katherine Heigl had movie stardom within her reach. Now, she’s the lead on NBC’s State of Affairs following a string of commercial duds in the early 2010s. There’s a whole article to be penned about Heigl’s rise and fall in Hollywood since online backlash first put her in the pillory in 2007 … Continue reading
“Every once in a while, it’s nice to be reminded that the non-principal cast members on Brooklyn Nine-Nine are people too. Last week, the series drilled down on Jake Peralta and did a lot of work to flesh him out as a complex human being with more layers beyond “clown” and “slacker”; this week, “Sabotage” … Continue reading
“The most inventive thing about Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella may be that it’s not particularly inventive at all. That’s because it doesn’t have to be—it’s Cinderella. Branagh’s take on the ages old fairy tale is a handsomely made affair, but it’s the vein of self-assurance running beneath his aesthetics that makes his film feel vital. Rather … Continue reading
“Nun sacciu, non vidi, nun ceru, e si ceru, durmivu”, the old Sicilian adage tells us; “I know nothing, I didn’t see anything, I wasn’t there, and if I was there, I was sleeping.” Had the sage responsible for concocting this well-worn proverb been fonder of brevity, it might make a good tagline for Italian actor … Continue reading
“Your enjoyment of Chappie will depend entirely on how high a premium you place on originality. The film’s influences announce themselves loudly and proudly; if you’ve seen Short Circuit, Short Circuit 2, and RoboCop, you have seen Chappie, or at least you’ve seen its skeleton dangled from a hang-up stand á la Budget Bart. But … Continue reading
“There are details about Ken Scott’sUnfinished Business worth respecting, or at least admiring. Scott has made a movie rooted in an indistinct business environment in which a woman holds a position of top authority; she’s allowed to be bluntly, even crudely alpha without being caricaturized or defamed for it, at least until an unfortunate display … Continue reading
“How good is Brooklyn Nine-Nine when it comes to nailing guest casting? Sure, fine, Nick Cannon hasn’t really made much of a splash in the daily adventures of the Nine-Nine squad, but that might be a case of the writers not quite knowing how to use him, or a sign that his big moment is … Continue reading
“In 1983, a quintet of would-be criminal masterminds snatched Dutch businessman and Heineken International CEO Freddy Heineken under the cover of dusk and held him for ransom over the span of three weeks. Four years later, investigative journalist and crime reporter Peter R. de Vries went and penned a book about the whole dang affair, … Continue reading
“In Ballet 422, director Jody Lee Lipes does something remarkable: He cuts himself out of the equation entirely. He’s barely a fly on the wall in his own documentary, which chronicles New York City Ballet soloist and choreographer Justin Peck’s attempt to architect the company’s 422nd production. Lipes’ approach to capturing his subjects is about … Continue reading
“There is no actor more perfect to play Joe Lo Truglio’s dad than Stephen Root; and there is no actress more perfect to play Chelsea Peretti’s mom than Sandra Bernhard. So an episode explicitly named for the marital union between Lynn Boyle and Darlene Linetti attains perfection on at least two different planes, which gives … Continue reading
“Karim Aïnouz’s Futuro Beach is a film that searches for beauty amid the crisis of life. Drilling down on that outline, it’s a film about life cycles; the foundation of its narrative, loose and shapeless though it may be, rests on the human connections made and conflicts waged in the wake of a single death. … Continue reading
“Back in 2009, dynamic filmmaking duo Glenn Ficarra and John Requa made their directorial debut with I Love You Phillip Morris, a romantic comedy based on the “true” story of veteran swindler Steven Jay Russell. They followed that effort two years later with Crazy, Stupid, Love, which traded heist antics for the bland conventionality of … Continue reading
“Looking from the outside in, the lives of the rich and the famous look pretty spiffy. They live in awesome houses, they wear awesome clothes, they have awesome accoutrements, and they get to do awesome stuff pretty much all day, every day. But if David Bowie and Young Jeezy have taught us anything, it’s that … Continue reading
“To say that “Valediction” doesn’t live up to the best episodes of Agent Carter’s cardinal season is to say that it’s still pretty good television; it’s just not great, which as criticisms go lies somewhere between “observational” and “straight up spoiled.” Maybe Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely shouldn’t have done such wonderful work on the … Continue reading
“Based on her recent credits, Salma Hayek may be the last person anyone would expect to go out guns blazing. In the last few years, she’s starred in disposable junk ranging from both Grown-Ups films to Here Comes the Boom, provided vocals for Puss in Boots, and made a cameo in Muppets Most Wanted. In … Continue reading
A Constant Visual Feast 