“‘Promising Young Woman’ Spurns Emerald Fennell’s Promise”

I can promise you this: Unlike Dennis Harvey, I think Carey Mulligan is 100% hot enough to serve as this film’s lead. Continue reading →

Review: American Ultra

“Like the protagonist of his film, Nima Nourizadeh’s American Ultra suffers from an identity crisis. The package sounds great on paper: A stoner targeted for elimination by the CIA learns he’s a highly trained government superspy of the Jason Bourne persuasion who gets reactivated in the face of imminent death and becomes a very, very … Continue reading →

Review: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, 2015, dir. Alfonso Gomez-Rejon

“There’s an art to manipulating a moviegoing audience. Every movie practices this art. Filmmakers have to sculpt their viewers’ responses to their work, even if only to a limited extent; some do it less than others, or perhaps they do such a good job exploiting our emotions that we don’t notice it. Those films function … Continue reading →