I think I know a thing or two about South Korean revenge movies, and I think I know a thing or two about South Korean action movies, which means I’m uniquely positioned to write about The Villainess, a South Korean revenge-action movie. It’s pretty solid, if lacking in fight scenes; the quality is there, but the … Continue reading
As a rule, I’m okay with bad things happening to characters in movies, whether they’re supporting types or leads. I’m not really okay with bad things happening to characters in movies for no other reason than to wound the audience, and that’s more or less how Bushwick approaches the delicate matter of sorting out character arcs. It’s … Continue reading
Samurai! So many samurai! Samurai all day long in this list of samurai films, I’m telling you. They’re even categorized based on the era of Japanese history in which they take place. That’s badass. Like a samurai. My name appears a bunch of times in this piece, and it’s such a well-researched, well-curated piece that I’ll … Continue reading
There’s a component of familiarity in Beach Rats, a movie about a young man performing heteronormative masculinity, but the familiarity is muffled by Eliza Hittman’s directing style; she’s one of a kind, and so is her movie, the first she’s made in the last few years after debuting with the superb It Felt Like Love. Beach Rats … Continue reading
If you could have a perfect holographic image of your late lover, whether your husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, or some undefinable fling, stored on a hard drive, and if you could talk to that image whenever you please, and if that image could learn about the person it reflects and become more and more like … Continue reading
Maybe I’m the wrong person to write about superhero stuff in 2017. Guys, really: I just can’t watch superhero things without finding big philosophical flaws in their makeup and intent. I’m afraid to sit through the second season of Jessica Jones when it airs next year, even, though then again, Jessica is the best thing about The Defenders, … Continue reading
Here it is, at long last (that is, if you think six months qualifies as “long”): My review of Janicza Bravo’s excellent debut feature film, Lemon, a chronicle of defective but self-aggrandizing whiteness, starring Bravo’s husband Brett Gelman (also serving here as co-writer; they’re a real team). There are reasons and then some why I like … Continue reading
There’s an internal debate raging in the pop culture center of my brain as to whether Epix’s new show, Get Shorty, is actually as good as I think it is, based on its existence as the second adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s 1990 novel (the first being, of course, 1995’s Get Shorty); I’m still mulling over whether it’s … Continue reading
Let me tell you a story about a guy named me who just got his first piece up in The Hollywood Reporter. It was a good piece, and in fact still is, and you should go read it. I’m not sure what else I’m doing here, really. I’m too excited by my THR debut. Sue … Continue reading
By now, y’all have probably forgotten that I watch Game of Thrones. This is because I don’t write much about Game of Thrones, except for when I feel the impulse to swoop in and pour disdain on Internet hysteria over needless, manipulative plot contrivances. But I’m back, writing about Game of Thrones once more, this time for the … Continue reading
I missed Columbus at this year’s Independent Film Festival Boston, so of course I was thrilled to catch up with it for its theatrical release. I was even more thrilled to find that it’s lovely, poetic, and just plain old great. At a glance, I expected the film to follow along expected plot lines, but I … Continue reading
I took a trip to Spain back in May, during Independent Film Festival Boston, which is just a cutesy-poo way of saying that I saw The Trip to Spain, Michael Winterbottom’s third entry in his The Trip series, orchestrated with and starring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. As with the other Trip movies, I liked this one. But it … Continue reading
Trust me: I really wanted to love Comrade Detective. I’m fond of most of the people involved, and if I’m naturally inclined to consider the basic conceit of dubbing comic vocal tracks over material that is not at all innately comic, I’m okay with it on the off chance that the people doing it nail the … Continue reading
I forgot to post this, so here it is: Paste Magazine’s Criterion Collection Round-Up for July of 2017. For whatever reason, I thought I’d written about Rome, Open City in the past – and it’s possible that I have, and have merely forgotten – but revisiting it years after first watching it, I found that my appreciation … Continue reading
I’ll keep this short: I went to the Vermont Brewers Festival with my wife and brother in law in tow, and we all got pretty darn well sloshed drinking a whole lot of really good beers (plus a couple that weren’t so good, but we don’t like to talk about those). And then I wrote … Continue reading
A Constant Visual Feast 