“‘Dickinson’ Season 2 Throws History Out The Window But Stays True To The Poet’s Spirit”

This show is as cute as the Dickens, son. (I’ll show myself out.) 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 →

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: True Grit, 2010, dir. the Coen Brothers

True Grit— via the Coen brothers– represents a landmark in the oeuvre of Ethan and Larry as the first pure genre movie they’ve attempted together. Even Blood Simple only dabbles in genre cinema; True Grit on the other hand can (and arguably should) be treated and appreciated as an uncomplicated and honest contemporary Western movie. … Continue reading →

…And the Nominees Are: Oscar Follow-Up

What makes the efforts of one director superior to those of another? If one person wins Best Director, does it stand to reason that they should also win Best Picture? I had these two questions– and sub-questions pertaining to both, as well as variations on each of said questions– rolling around in my head after … Continue reading →