“Able to Do Anything Post-MCU, Robert Downey Jr. Chooses ‘Dolittle'”

What’s a man do to when he has all the money in the world plus a rehabilitated image as Marvel’s greatest hero? He does little. Very, very little. Continue reading →

Review: April and the Extraordinary World, 2016, dir. Christian Desmares & Franck Ekinci

I don’t know how many people have access to movies like April and the Extraordinary World, and I don’t know many people love Hergé and Tintin and traditional animation and steampunk and Marion Cotillard. If you do love any one or more of those things, this movie was basically made with you in mind. It’s glorious. It’s also … Continue reading →

Review: Contagion, 2011, dir. Steven Soderbergh

I’ve said before that Steven Soderbergh is a genre chameleon; if this year’s Haywire doesn’t unequivocally prove that, then last year’s Contagion should, and soundly at that. Contagion may not be a straight genre film in the way that the multi-faceted filmmaker’s bone-snapping arthouse action film is, but it nonetheless exists as a synthesis of numerous filmmaking categories– essentially, … Continue reading →

Premature Retrospection: My Favorite Films in 2011 (So Far)

I realize that in a few months time, I’ll be cobbling together a top ten list for 2011 as I’ve done for the past two years that A Constant Visual Feast has been up and running. But 2011 has been a good year cinematically, for me specifically and for film in general; I’ve seen more … Continue reading →

Review: Midnight in Paris, 2011, dir. Woody Allen

A review for Midnight in Paris requires no preamble simply because it’s the best movie Woody Allen has made in years, which alone should be sufficient reason to watch it in light of the director’s limp and joyless recent output. But a review that begins with the suggestion that Midnight in Paris far exceeds the … 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 →

Review: Nine, 2009, dir. Rob Marshall

Rob Marshall is no stranger to the musical genre; just eight years ago he enjoyed considerable success adapting Bob Fosse’s iconic crime satire Chicago, both critical and monetary, from Broadway to the silver screen. His film wound up inexplicably snagging the Best Picture award at the Oscars, and even if Marshall himself got black flagged … Continue reading →

Review: Inception, 2010, dir. Christopher Nolan

Inception, in its fashion, feels well-worn and familiar but only because the trick of the film is a favorite of director Chris Nolan’s. Indeed, he pulled it off just two years ago with 2008’s The Dark Knight, a sincere if bloated attempt at inciting a mainstream cultural phenomenon framed within an equally genuine bid at … Continue reading →