For me, watching The Finest Hours reinforced the necessity for watching movies before interviewing the talent involved in their production. Grant that this is very much an irregular practice for me, and that nobody on a set visit has seen the movie beforehand for obvious reasons. All the same, it was only inevitable that my … Continue reading
Happy January! The start of the new year is always rough for moviegoers, unless they’re out to catch up on Golden Globe and Academy Award nominees; this is the month that studios use to dump out their garbage, for the most part, so you’re probably knocking out your last few “must-sees” from the previous year … Continue reading
“Talking about “The Cruise” without talking about Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s fondness for referential and self-contained franchisement is impossible. First, we had “Halloween III,” where Santiago brought the series-long All Hallow’s Eve prank war fought by Holt and Jake to a decisive end; then we had “Yippie Kayak,” where Boyle became subsumed into Jake’s Die Hard … Continue reading
“This has been a good month for moviegoers craving celebrations of machismo. First, Alejandro González Iñárritu’s desperately masculine, Oscar-nominated The Revenant went wide. Then, Michael Bay’s 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi opened and fizzled in the same weekend. Now, The Departed screenwriter William Monahan’s second directorial effort, Mojave, joins the fray with a … Continue reading
If you’re looking for a reason to be grateful you’re alive in the era of Donald Trump, ISIS, the Oregon militia standoff, and an all-time high in mass shootings, look no further than Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude’s Aferim!. Maybe the world isn’t in an especially sunny place right now, but compared to 1800s Wallachia, it’s a paradise. Aferim! is … Continue reading
It is pretty to think that all of this year’s Oscars outrage might have been avoided with just a few shifts in nominations. In truth, recognition for some combination of Samuel L. Jackson, Will Smith, Teyonah Parris, Ryan Coogler, Michael B. Jordan, Jason Mitchell, Corey Hawkins, Jada Pinkett Smith, Abraham Attah, Idris Elba, Mya Taylor, Aaron Covington, … Continue reading
Maybe Obama should have postponed his final State of the Union until after the premiere of Michael Bay’s latest fascist masterwork. At least then, Ted Cruz would have been too busy sitting in an empty theater with his pants around his ankles to offer response. 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (henceforth referred to solely … Continue reading
There was never a chance that Star Wars: The Force Awakens wasn’t going to disappoint me or let me down to one degree or another. It is not because I am biased. It is not because I do not like Star Wars, because I do. Few subjects send me into apoplexy as swiftly as the prequel films, for … Continue reading
“When Mark Twain wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn back in 1884, he prefaced the novel with a wry warning: “Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.” This … Continue reading
“Ron Perlman’s performance in Antoine Bardou-Jacquet’s Moonwalkers is the film’s best recommendation. It is also the only recommendation, for the most part, because for all of the great violence on display, there’s not a whole lot hanging the production together. Screenwriter Dean Craig’s script is the rubber and Perlman is the glue. Nothing sticks here … Continue reading
“Talking to actors and filmmakers on a set visit is tons of fun, but here’s the truth: you only get so much time with them, because while you’re sitting pretty in a tent taking notes and making small talk with your fellow journalists, they’re making a movie (which, in the case of Craig Gillespie’s The Finest … Continue reading
“Imagine the unimaginable: One moment you’re out enjoying a beautiful, sunny day with your friends and your sisters, and the next, your grandmother is slapping you silly for having inappropriate contact with boys. Everything else snowballs from there: You’re whisked off to the doctor for a virginity test, your personal possessions are shut up in … Continue reading
I woke up this morning and it struck me that last night was the air date for this year’s Golden Globes ceremony. Following being struck that first time, I was struck again by the realization that I have said nothing about them at any point; I have offered no commentary, presented no predictions, and yielded no … Continue reading
“For aficionados of brutal genre films, Alejandro González Iñárritu’s The Revenant has enough to keep you satisfied. Find scenes of bravura violence photographed by an eminent cinematographer (the great Emmanuel Lubezki). Find the vague impression of deep, abiding meaning. Find bear-mauling, equine disembowelment. Find rape, castration, graphic suffering. Find additional suffering. Find more suffering. And … Continue reading
“January is traditionally a crummy time for new releases. Coming off a banner year at the movies, a la 2015, this crusty old truism isn’t a big deal; there remain many worthy films running at your local art house or at the closest multiplex, and now, as we close in on the AMPAS nominations announcement, … Continue reading
Keep your eyes here, folks. Exciting things are going to happen here this year. I hope. If you know me, talk to me, and read my stuff enough, you know that this writing thing isn’t simply a hobby for me these days; it’s more like a hobby that’s just a few miles away from being something … Continue reading
“If adapting the tale of the 1952 SS Pendleton rescue – in which officers in the Coast Guard rescued the crew of the SS Pendleton and the SS Mercer off the coast of Massachusetts during a vicious nor’easter – for the movies sounds like a no-brainer, that’s because it was: when Casey Sherman, author of … Continue reading
“Playing a real person in a movie sounds like it should make an actor’s job easy. That kind of role has a blueprint of its own to draw on, after all; it’s just a simple matter of getting to know who your character is and learning how to emulate them. Right? Not so according to … Continue reading
“For an actor spending their days getting tossed around a gimbal while waves of frigid water smack them in the face, a few minutes’ reprieve in a nice, warm press tent sounds like heaven. But when a waterlogged and exhausted Ben Foster (Warcraft) met with Screen Rant and other journalists on the set of Craig Gillespie’s upcoming … Continue reading
“Here’s a new twist on an old favorite: Boyle and Jake, buddies now, buddies forever, quantifiably grow up after having a wacky off-duty adventure that ends with the promise of a potentially amazing multi-episode story arc. If Dan Goor and Michael Schur know what’s good for them (and the show, really), they’ll use this opportunity … Continue reading
A Constant Visual Feast 