Someone should write up a list of talented filmmakers who have yet to receive their due outside of the echo chambers of film criticism and cinephilia. Maybe that someone should be me. But I’ve got other things to write about, and besides, I already know that Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s name is at the top of that … Continue reading
It only occurred to me recently that I never did any writing about Force Majeure, that delightfully gelid, darkly comic Swedish parody of manhood; it’s a great film, as in truly great, as in not just “better than good” but “outstanding.” (So I guess it’s an outstanding film. Look, shut up.) Anyways: This occurred to me leading … Continue reading
2017 has visited a flood of Stephen King adaptations upon us, most of them good (It! Gerald’s Game!), one of them less so (you can connect the dots from here!). Now we’ve got 1922 on our hands courtesy of those wacky non-advertising types over at Netflix. It’s good! It’s really good, in fact! It might be the … Continue reading
We turn to movies, more often than not, for escape and distraction, for the promise of having our woes assuaged, if only for a couple of hours, in the calming glow of the silver screen (whether in large or small formats). Occasionally, though, the movies deny us, as in Angels Wear White, the new film by … Continue reading
Gang: It’s been a gross, terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week. It’s been a gross, terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week for a slew of reasons, but I’m here today to talk about the Harvey Weinstein scandal (which isn’t quite a “scandal,” because sexual abuse isn’t scandalous; it’s criminal). Because I am me, … Continue reading
Happy October! Here: Have a listicle about great werewolf movies, because in the grand assembly of all of horror’s sub-genres and niches, the werewolf picture is among the least celebrated for reasons I can’t possibly fathom. Werewolves are scarier than zombies! There! I said it! Zombie movies are really only as frightening as their human … Continue reading
Friday the 13th only rolls around so often; in the case of 2017, “so often” means “twice,” and we’ll stick to that pattern until Donald Trump (or, who knows, maybe Mike Pence) gets voted the fuck out of office. But how cool is it that our second Friday the 13th this year happens to fall … Continue reading
Everyone knows that I hated, hated, hated Roland Emmerich’s Stonewall. What my take on David France’s new film, The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson, presupposes is that, maybe you shouldn’t make terrible biopics about real-life events while supplanting the real-life struggling minorities at their center with clean-cut white boys? …so, yeah, I guess that doesn’t … Continue reading
Shocking revelation: I’m a big-time sucker for a good sitcom. My love for Brooklyn Nine-Nine is well-documented, I watched The Mindy Project religiously until it went to Hulu (because, y’know, I didn’t have Hulu at the time), I grew up on Family Matters and Full House and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and you get the idea, right? So, basically, I’m … Continue reading
And just in time for the scariest month on the calendar (save for November during fucking election years): This new, shiny piece I’ve got up at The Hollywood Reporter (which, being a few days old, no longer quite qualifies as either “new” or “shiny,” but shaddup), about Mike Flanagan and his new film, Gerald’s Game. If you’re … Continue reading
Good news! I’m still here. I’m suffering a writer’s drought, but I’m still here. And here’s our first break in the drought: Paste Magazine’s monthly Criterion Collection round-up, this time for September (because that’s how months work). As with most Criterion months, September ’17 is pretty good, I think; I can’t speak for a couple … Continue reading
A Constant Visual Feast 