“Is Daniel Radcliffe Trying To Make Us Hate Him?”

Look, I can’t control what Jason Lei Howden does or says because he’s a raging asshole, don’t hate me for writing about his most recent movie. Continue reading →

“What ‘Fantastic Beasts’ Lost by Leaving ‘Harry Potter’ Behind”

You may remember that two years ago, I had very unflattering things to say about Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, allegedly a “spin-off” from and “prequel” to the Harry Potter films, but more honestly an attempt at squeezing a few bajillion more dimes out of J.K. Rowling’s now-classic YA series. To paraphrase Sarah Silverman in Popstar: … Continue reading →

Review: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, 2016, dir. David Yates

I didn’t like The Legend of Tarzan, the first of two movies on David Yates’ slate in 2016. I also didn’t like Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, his second movie, but I liked it much more even if its failures left me feeling aggrieved more than Tarzan‘s did; it’s perhaps the 2016 franchise film that is … Continue reading →

Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, pt. 2, 2011, dir. David Yates

Unsurprisingly, the second part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is one massive climax from start to finish. What else did anyone expect? Part one heroically bit the bullet and allowed itself to bear the weight of the novel’s filler, martyr-like, so that part two could act like an unrelenting, two-hour-and-change action scene in … Continue reading →

2011 Rising: My Films to Watch (pt.1)

For me, 2010’s in the bag, but it’s not totally wrapped up until I take the time to ruminate over the upcoming slate of movies in 2011 that excite me, discourage me, intrigue me, or puzzle/offend me (and, of course, also post the rest of my top ten, which is, I promise, coming around the … Continue reading →

Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (pt.1), 2010, dir. David Yates

The end has come, but not really so much at all, no. Seeing the first half of the two-part finale to the Harry Potter saga, I can fully appreciate the artistic need to break the book apart; even more, I can better admire J.K. Rowling’s gargantuan, overstuffed seventh novel and the scope of both the … Continue reading →

The Home Stretch: Fall and Winter 2010’s Films to Watch

2010 dwindles down to its final hour with the passing of each day. It’s been a pretty mixed year, filled with movies worth watching but not necessarily worth getting excited about; only a handful here and there, for my taste, have really been exceptional and stood out amongst the crowd of good-but-unmemorable releases. But what … Continue reading →

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 2009, dir. David Yates

If you didn’t know that you were watching the latest installment in the Harry Potter series, if you hadn’t bought the ticket yourself and sat through the opening credits, then the odds are good that you wouldn’t know what, exactly, you were watching in the film’s first scene, in which swirling black apparitions wreak havoc … Continue reading →