First: Please everyone bow to Matt Patches, one of my editors, who made the .gif as the header for this piece. It is truly breathtaking. Second: Watch these movies! Yes, the final entry is an example of Andy fudging his own rules, but I wrote the fucking thing, and you’re not the boss of me. … Continue reading
This movie left me feeling awful Maudlin. Continue reading
A sterling example of getting what you pay for: A movie about possession that’s also named after possession. Continue reading
The best movies, the best albums, the best horror, and the best catty side-swipes at whatever’s annoying me at the time of this writing. Happy New Year! Continue reading
Out with the old, in with the new, but first you’d better watch these ten movies and maybe scare the daylights out of yourself. Continue reading
Or IS he? He isn’t. But he IS! Or is he? Buokay, okay, fine, I’ll stop, because whether Daniel is real or not (he is), this movie is very, very real. Continue reading
The decade ain’t over ’til the ball drops, but eh, close enough in Internet years; let’s all get the pants scared off our persons. Continue reading
Shrugging off television viewing and ranking has lifted a massive weight off of my shoulders, because a) Television sucks, and b) Writing about television sucks way, way more Obviously I’m not above writing about TV now and again, but don’t anticipate that I’ll mix TV into my “best of” shenanigans again anytime soon. I’m much too … Continue reading
And it took a good bit of legwork to actually get to ten, let me tell you! Continue reading
“If you’ve been paying the slightest attention, you may have heard: Baltimore is on fire. If you’ve paid more attention than that, you might be aware that the United States of America has lately had a problem with police-involved shootings—though it doesn’t take a true scholar of our law enforcement’s history with racialized killings to … Continue reading
Remember last week when I theorized that each episode of Game of Thrones‘ second season, following the pilot, would probably place more focus on a smaller number of characters? Seems like time’s proving me right. Maybe that’s not a boast exactly, since it’s just plain old logical, but expect this to be the routine with each … Continue reading
I’ve said before that Steven Soderbergh is a genre chameleon; if this year’s Haywire doesn’t unequivocally prove that, then last year’s Contagion should, and soundly at that. Contagion may not be a straight genre film in the way that the multi-faceted filmmaker’s bone-snapping arthouse action film is, but it nonetheless exists as a synthesis of numerous filmmaking categories– essentially, … Continue reading
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to sit down with three local area critics for a round table interview with the wonderfully loquacious and energetic Joseph Kahn to talk about his latest film, the genre-blender Detention. Without hesitation, I’ll say that this happens to be one of my favorite releases of the year to date, and if … Continue reading
We’re almost there– it’s down to the final ten. Starting with: 10) 13 Assassins: “While the plot that subsequently comes together falls within the bailiwick typical to most men-on-a-mission films as Shinzaemon collects his chosen warriors– a motley crew of samurai ranging in age and experience, which eventually also comes to include a hunter (Yusuke … Continue reading
Another year, another film about films and the spirit of filmmaking itself. Leave it to the legendary Martin Scorsese, though, to take the opportunity to fuse together a picture of that persuasion on a grand, macro scale which spans more than a century instead of honing in on a more intimate examination of the craft. … Continue reading
Meek’s Cutoff feels something like an oddity in the western genre, and I mean that in the best way possible. There’s no denying the western influences clearly embedded in its cinematic DNA; Kelly Reichardt’s fourth feature very much draws from that celluloid tradition, but she’s not telling a story about cowboys and Indians or marshals … Continue reading
Did we need a Saved! for the Facebook and Twitter generation? If Easy A gets remembered for anything apart from Emma Stone’s excellent performance, as well as the supporting turns by Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson, it will be for the social networking metaphor the film presents in the alacrity with which the lies and … Continue reading
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost at this point should be considered the premiere comic duo of our time. Is that fair to say? These English lads– one of their country’s most beloved exports– constitute a twosome which functions organically and a dynamic that requires no employment of shtick to work; they’re funny, individually and together, … Continue reading
Christopher Nolan is a man obsessed with heroes who choose fantasy over reality. This proclivity didn’t only begin when he took on the task of rehabilitating the ailing Batman franchise by wrapping it with thick layers of realism, though it’s easily the most obvious place to start in this particular analysis: Nolan’s characters, beginning with … Continue reading
Bizarre genius. Those two words may best describe Vincenzo Natali’s decade-in-the-making Frankenstein update, Splice, an imperfect movie executed with the exact amount of gusto needed to transcend its own inadequacies. Make no mistake, Splice is flawed, but those aspects that underwhelm never impede the film from being thoughtful and satisfying in all of its weird, … Continue reading
A Constant Visual Feast 