“‘Wild Indian’s Generational Pain Is Scattershot But True”

See, the title works because of racism. Continue reading →

Review: Louder Than Bombs, 2016, dir. Joachim Trier

It’s been awhile since Joachim Trier decided to be nice and make a movie – the last time was back in 2012, when his second feature, Oslo, August 31st, made its way to American theaters. But good news! Trier’s third film, Louder Than Bombs, is making the rounds, and opens in Boston on the 29th. And hey, … Continue reading →

Review: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, 2016, dir. Zack Snyder

…well, it’s here. I am referring both to Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and my review of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which just went up at Paste moments ago. Put in short: I kind of hated it in a very ambivalent way. It’s a terrible movie, and watching it exhausted and agitated me to no … 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 →

IFFBoston: First Dispatch

“There may be no more fitting way to kick off a celebration of storytellers than with a portrait of a storyteller, so combining Independent Film Festival Boston with The End of the Tour feels simply felicitous. This is the second time a James Ponsoldt film has commenced festivities at New England’s largest film festival; he … Continue reading →

2011 Rising: My Films to Watch (pt.2)

Part 2 of my 2011 preview commences…now! (Part 1 can be perused here, at your leisure.) X-Men: First Class— By happy coincidence, the first trailer for Matthew Vaughn’s period prequel to the X-Men franchise hit just last week, and guess what? It looks really good. Focusing specifically on the relationship between Erik Lehnsherr, the man … Continue reading →

….And the Nominees Are…

I’m not one to make a habit of writing about awards shows. Yes, I’m happy to comment on pieces other people have written about the Golden Globes or the Oscars, but as a rule I avoid committing blog posts to such subjects. They don’t interest me; this is entirely because they’re not produced for me … Continue reading →

Andrew’s Top Ten of 2010 (pt.2)

Early America was a remarkable place, unique as the one nation where people from all around the world could come together and be called equal. The color of one’s skin, one’s native language, and one’s economic status didn’t matter. Once you arrived in America, it made no difference, because in America everyone was treated the … Continue reading →

Review: The Social Network, 2010, dir. David Fincher

Announcement to Jesse Eisenberg: From henceforth you are no longer allowed to work with writers whose names are not Aaron Sorkin. Sorkin, known throughout his career for engineering propulsive and mercurial dialogue, possesses a style almost tailor-made for Eisenberg’s precipitative speech patterns. Throughout The Social Network‘s two hour running time Eisenberg seems to be 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 →

Review: Zombieland, 2009, dir. Ruben Fleischer

How do filmmakers today keep the decaying body of the zombie invasion genre fresh and– so to speak– alive? Decades of offerings focused on the shambling hordes of the undead, many of which exist solely to ape their oft-superior predecessors, have rendered this cornerstone of low-budget indie horror filmmaking inert, arid, and utterly boring. But … Continue reading →