“‘The Rental’ Needs Some Work”

To BnB, or not to BnB. Continue reading →

“How Dan Stevens Got Weird”

I dig Dan Stevens and I make no apologies. But I do make unexpected analogies! I remember reading, I think, Have a Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks, Mick Foley’s 1999 autobiography, and I remember Foley writing about Vince McMahon’s habit of getting in the ring and taking chairs to the face and stunners … Continue reading →

“How ‘The Raid’ Filmmaker Gareth Evans Is Challenging Himself With New Genres”

“Enough already with Apostle pieces!” you say. “Ha ha ha! Deal with it, sucker!” says I, swinging my second article about one of my recent favorites, Gareth Evans’ new horror joint, right at your face. I didn’t get to write all of the pieces about Mandy, but lord I tried. I am now making up for that … Continue reading →

Review: Apostle, 2018, dir. Gareth Evans

Well, hey, look at that, a new Gareth Evans movie. I’ve been waiting on more Evans since 2014’s The Raid 2: Berandal, a high point in action filmmaking (if a little bit bloated, but the bloat is all good bloat); he has a way about the camera that ensures the camera is as involved in what … Continue reading →

Review: Permission, 2018, dir. Brian Crano

Oh dear! I thought I shared this, but, uh, looks like I didn’t! So here it is, my review of Brian Crano’s Permission, which is maybe the only Valentine’s Day movie anyone needed this year. (Maybe also The Shape of Water. Or Phantom Thread.) I rather liked this, with a couple of specific reservations, but those aside it’s … Continue reading →

Review: Kill Switch, 2017, dir. Tim Smit

I’m a man with an iron stomach, but even I came close to blowing chunks during stretches of Hardcore Henry, so the idea of taking on another film shot through a first-person perspective might make me sound amnesic. But Kill Switch isn’t Hardcore Henry, not simply for lack of gratuitous violence (and gratuitous Sharlto Copley performances) but for … Continue reading →

Review: The Ticket, 2017, dir. Ido Fluk

That Dan Stevens sure is handsome, isn’t he? He’s also ubiquitous. He’s all up in the everywhere. He’s on Legion. He’s in Beauty and the Beast. He’s in Nacho Vigalondo’s excellent new film Colossal. He’s also in The Ticket, Ido Fluk’s new film, which isn’t “excellent” but also isn’t “terrible,” either. It’s a little too specific for its own good. … Continue reading →

Review: A Walk Among the Tombstones, 2014, dir. Scott Frank

“From a distance, A Walk Among the Tombstones looks an awful lot like “generic Liam Neeson actioner #1,075″, but that’s only a half-accurate first impression. Oh, Neeson grumbles and sneers, dispassionate to the world around him and ambivalent about his mortality, a stereotypical hard-boiled badass; he’s seen it all, and he cares little about anything that doesn’t tie into the storm … Continue reading →