“‘The Avengers’ Gave Us Marvel’s Peak, 10 Years Ago”

Pour one out for the superhero movie, which had a great moment once upon a time and has steadily lost that moment every year since. Continue reading →

“‘Defending Jacob’: Chris Evans Can’t Rescue This Heavy-Handed Drama Series”

When an abundance of talent produces a result so middle of the road that you’d rather it’d turned out as shit. Continue reading →

“‘Knives Out’ Knows Only One Truth: The Rich Have No Loyalty”

Turkey’s out, will’s out, knives out. Continue reading →

Review: The Avengers, 2012, dir. Joss Whedon

The Avengers didn’t have to do much to impress me. Being as honest as possible, Joss Whedon’s attempt at making a respectable entrance into the 2012 summer season with the capstone picture of Marvel Studios’ long-gestating superhero bonanza just needed to be tolerable to get a pass from me. Put bluntly, C-level material alone would … Continue reading →

Review: Captain America: The First Avenger, 2011, dir. Joe Johnston

To call Captain America: The First Avenger “perfect” would be something of an overstatement– the opening scene serves absolutely no appreciable purpose whatsoever for the movie’s narrative, and the denouement gets a little choppy and falters in set-up and execution. The unsavory frames of film that bookend what you could call Joe Johnston’s masterpiece (with … Continue reading →

2011 Rising: My Films to Watch (pt.2)

Part 2 of my 2011 preview commences…now! (Part 1 can be perused here, at your leisure.) X-Men: First Class— By happy coincidence, the first trailer for Matthew Vaughn’s period prequel to the X-Men franchise hit just last week, and guess what? It looks really good. Focusing specifically on the relationship between Erik Lehnsherr, the man … 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 →