“Thirty years is a long time to wait for a sequel. If not for the passage of time, though, then George Miller’s career trajectory since 1985 may have initially been reason enough to regard the latest installment in the dystopian Mad Max series with caution. The new film stars Tom Hardy as Max Rockatansky with … Continue reading
A strong contender for “best video game movie ever,” bless Scott Adkins. Continue reading
“Are we in a rush or something?” It’s one of the earliest pieces of dialogue in Max Winkler’s debut picture, Ceremony, and I don’t know if he meant any irony by the statement but after an hour and twenty minutes that little quip perfectly encapsulates my feelings on the film. Winkler’s in a hurry to … Continue reading
Hiroyuki Sanada may well be the best actor whose name you’ve never heard, but whose face you swear you’ve seen before. Like countless other Americans I suffer from a crippling addiction to television juggernaut Lost, a show that went from character driven, high-concept science fiction recalling Jules Verne to a nebulous and frustrating series of … Continue reading
It’s the end of the world as we know it, but if you watch these 10 films, you’ll feel fine. Or maybe you’ll feel worse! Continue reading
No Welsh? No problem! Continue reading
Don’t let the list of very long, nigh-unpronouncable Icelandic names overwhelm or intimidate you away from seeing this excellent Icelandic dark comedy. (“Dark comedy” in Iceland is kinda like easy viewing, though.) Continue reading
2017 is the year we all got out, so I’m not surprised, or disappointed, to see Jordan Peele’s astonishing horror film Get Out win top marks among my peers in the Boston Online Film Critics Association (BOFCA). Our annual awards rumpus usually spreads the love out among a number of contenders, rather than dumping it all on … Continue reading
I watch a lot of movies, and I don’t write about all of them. This is especially true of the annual year-end rush to cram in as much movie watching goodness as possible before voting deadlines for the Boston Online Film Critics Association (BOFCA) and the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS). Consider these capsules my … Continue reading
Does Charles Ferguson’s Time to Choose count as pro-environmental propaganda? That’s a loaded label to sling at any film, especially a well-intentioned documentarian attempt at courting our sense of obligation to our planet. The Earth’s slow-burn ruination is one of humanity’s great shames, after all; we’re the ones gutting its depths, scarring its face, and … Continue reading
I have never gotten motion sick from watching a movie. Ever. My stomach stayed strong through the shaky-cam antics of Cloverfield, and I didn’t flinch watching either of the first two V/H/S films in the theater. (V/H/S Viral upset my digestion, but only because it’s kind of a terrible movie.) I can endure buckets of gore without batting … Continue reading
…look, you all knew this was coming. Here’s the thing about last Sunday’s Oscar ceremony: I don’t remember most of it. That might be a good thing. In my mind, the inability to recall vast swaths of the show signals the following: Nobody said anything embarrassing (a’la Travolta introducing Idina Menzel as Adele Dazeem) Nobody said … Continue reading
Fair warning: I really didn’t want to write this piece, and I’m doing it out of misguided obligation. Maybe I’m whining, but cut me some slack; I’ve already written about the #OscarsSoWhite fracas, and also contributed a handful of yadda yaddas to Paste Magazine’s annual Oscar preview (though I spend most of my yaddas turning my nose up at the … 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
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
“And that’s it: 2015 is in the books. If you listen to what everyone else is saying, it’s been a pretty good year for the movies. Frankly, they’re not wrong, but the best testament to the quality of cinema in a single year may be the films that don’t get any recognition in the year-end … Continue reading
Boy, 2015 has been a fabulous year for film. This, of course, is true of most years, so long as you are willing to step outside of your comfort zone and seek out releases from off the beaten path. But it’s especially true of 2015, which doesn’t require viewers to stray too far from their … Continue reading
“The post-apocalyptic future of Turbo Kid might be set in 1997, but the film’s stylistic sensibility is straight from the 1980s. That’s the point, of course; the whole film is intended as an ode to the campy gewgaws of ’80s pop culture. It’s a movie that’s about looking back at a bygone time, both for … Continue reading
“If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again.” When W.E. Hickson popularized this crusty old Thomas Palmer aphorism back in the 1800’s, he couldn’t have known that one day, one of America’s most high profile movie studios would take the phrase to heart with not one, not two, but three attempts at building a franchise … Continue reading
“Alfred Hitchcock once opined that a correctly designed picture should elicit screams from a Japanese audience at the same time as an Indian audience. Language, in other words, shouldn’t be a barrier to experiencing the thrill of the cinema. Two particular films released in 2015 loudly echo Hitch’s inestimable wisdom: First, George Miller’s Mad Max: … Continue reading
A Constant Visual Feast 