“‘The Day Shall Come’ And The Myth Of The Black Nationalist Terrorist”

The day shall come! In fact, it already came! It’s done. It’s gone. You missed it. What the hell, why weren’t you paying attention for the day. Continue reading →

Review: Pitch Perfect 3, 2017, dir. Trish Sie

The Pitch Perfect series is, for the most part, delightful; it’s a cliché to say that the first movie in a trilogy is the best, but Pitch Perfect really is better than Pitch Perfect 2, which mostly entertains with more bumps in the road plus a handful of unnecessary detours. So I’m not surprised that Pitch Perfect 3 turned … Continue reading →

Review: The Accountant, 2016, dir. Gavin O’Connor

The Accountant is Pixar’s latest family heart-warmer, a comedy about an ant who keeps the books for his colony and – wait, no. Sorry. That’s wrong. The Accountant is a movie where Ben Affleck plays an accountant who is on the autism spectrum, whose clients are mostly murderers and scumbags, and who shoots people in the fucking … Continue reading →

Review: The Hollars, 2016, dir. John Krasinski

I disliked John Krasinski’s The Hollars quite a bit. I did not like it at all, no sir, which makes him 0 for 2 with me in 2016. On Krasinski’s part, I’m not exactly sure where The Hollars is coming from; I’m not sure if this is his attempt at telling a personal story or if he’s … Continue reading →

Review: Digging For Fire, 2015, dir. Joe Swanberg

“With another year comes another Joe Swanberg joint about middle-class ennui. There are any number of reasons to roll one’s eyes at the prolific indie filmmaker’s latest, Digging For Fire—its blatant heteronormativity, adherence to traditional gender roles, unscripted moments of marble-mouthed philosophizing, and severely unlikable characters. But in the department of good news, Swanberg’s go-to … Continue reading →

Review: The Voices, 2015, dir. Marjane Satrapi

“There’s nothing wrong with talking to your pets. But if they start talking back, well, that’s a cause for concern. Such is the magical realist scenario director Marjane Satrapi explores in The Voices. Jerry (Ryan Reynolds) is an upbeat and peculiar factory worker who spends his time at home having conversations with his cat, an … Continue reading →

Review: Drinking Buddies, 2013, dir. Joe Swanberg

With fifteen directing credits under his belt since 2005, and almost twice that number of acting gigs, Joe Swanberg is nothing if not prolific. He’s also intensely divisive, having long ago earned the dubious honor of serving as a lightning rod for the critical community; as one of the mumblecore film movement’s most prominent non-Duplass … Continue reading →

Review: 50/50, 2011, dir. Jonathan Levine

Writing a review for 50/50 presents something of a challenge to me. On one hand, I want to rave to high heavens about it; on the other, I don’t want to oversell it. Every word I write, therefore, walks a fine line between setting up unfair expectations that the film can’t hope to meet and … Continue reading →

Review: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, 2010, dir. Edgar Wright

If there’s one cinematic companion to Scott Pilgrim vs. The World that leaps immediately to my mind, it’s not the obvious sugar-rush action movies that director and English national treasure Edgar Wright tends to favor but rather the very genuine and down-to-earth 2007 romantic comedy Knocked Up. Cut out the super-powered bass battles, sword fights, … Continue reading →