Review: Love, Antosha, 2019, dir. Garret Price

I’m not the kind of guy who speaks ill of the dead, but that doesn’t mean I’m crazy about films made in their honor, either. Continue reading →

“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Shows That Anyone Can Be Spider-Man”

True story: On first hearing of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, I wrote it off and put it out of my memory, thinking, “this sounds like a pretty naked excuse to put a bunch of different Spider-Man variations into a single movie for the purpose of moving lots of ancillary product, and also most Marvel movies aren’t … Continue reading →

“Chris Pine And A Banner Year For Male Nudity”

Two things: The original title of this piece, or, more honestly, the suggested title, was “Chris Pine‘s Wood.” Obviously that got nixed, for reasons I can appreciate and agree with. I forgot about The Spy Who Dumped Me, which has some impressive male dong and balls on display, and was reminded by a dear friend after the … Continue reading →

“How ‘Wrinkle in Time’ Refuses to Conform”

Recently, I took it upon myself as a journalist, a critic, and a writer to re-read A Wrinkle in Time, the ol’ Madeleine L’Engle book, in preparation for A Wrinkle in Time, the new Ava DuVernay adaptation. (I actually covered the story years back, when Disney hired Jennifer Lee to write it, so I’ve been procrastinating on … Continue reading →

Review: The Finest Hours, 2016, dir. Craig Gillespie

  For me, watching The Finest Hours reinforced the necessity for watching movies before interviewing the talent involved in their production. Grant that this is very much an irregular practice for me, and that nobody on a set visit has seen the movie beforehand for obvious reasons. All the same, it was only inevitable that my … Continue reading →

The Finest Hours: The SS Pendleton Story, Fact & Fiction

“If adapting the tale of the 1952 SS Pendleton rescue – in which officers in the Coast Guard rescued the crew of the SS Pendleton and the SS Mercer off the coast of Massachusetts during a vicious nor’easter – for the movies sounds like a no-brainer, that’s because it was: when Casey Sherman, author of … Continue reading →

Set Visit Report: The Finest Hours

“If you’ve never hunkered down in your den, hot cocoa in hand, ready to wait out the gusting winds and extensive precipitation that come packaged in a nor’easter, then count yourself lucky. A nor’easter storm is no joke, even if you’re at home with all the necessary accoutrements to get through its duration in one … Continue reading →

Review: Horrible Bosses 2, 2014, dir. Sean Anders

“Why does every single Jason Bateman character ever insist on associating with morons? Bateman’s always been the smartest, most hapless schmuck in the room; ever since his days on Arrested Development, viewers have gravitated towards him out of sympathy, wanting to support his innate, down-to-earth likeability. But there’s a point at which an actor’s persona … Continue reading →

Review: Rise of the Guardians, 2012, dir. Peter Ramsey

Thinking about Rise of the Guardians, Dreamworks’ latest offering, I can’t say for sure whether Pete Ramsey mixed a heart-warming, energetic childrens’ film with a story of secular subversion or vice versa. Most likely, it’s the former; there’s little doubting that Rise of the Guardians exists first and foremost to entertain and dazzle theaters full … Continue reading →