“André Holland Talks Netflix’s ‘High Flying Bird’ And The Racial Politics of Sports”

A chat with one of the best actors out there about process, trust, and one of the most pervasive social and political issues of our day, that of America’s original sin. Continue reading →

“High Flying Bird And America’s Modern-day Auction Block”

Steve Soderbergh picks up an iPhone and in accordance with the words of the great Tarell Alvin McCraney, he puts together a movie arguing that pro sports and slavery aren’t that dissimilar as institutions. The results: Great. Continue reading →

“Best of Criterion’s New Releases, July 2018”

This month via The Criterion Collection: Dragon Inn. That’s pretty much all you need to know. I went nuts over A Touch of Zen, King Hu’s other grand wuxia film, back in July of 2016, when Criterion added that one to their library and I wrote about the release, though apparently my writing on the matter never published … Continue reading →

“How Ocean’s 8 Succeeded Where Ghostbusters Went Wrong”

I’m surprised that this is a hot-ish take (which I guess makes it a lukewarm-ish take, right?), but: Ocean’s 8 is a superior gender-flipped reboot to most other gender-flipped reboots released to date, chief among them being Ghostbusters ’16, a movie I do not have a positive relationship with.  Look, the plain damn truth is that these … Continue reading →

Review: Side Effects, 2013, dir. Steven Soderbergh

Is this it? Is this the final theatrical release for filmmaking maverick Steven Soderbergh? The man has been threatening to retire for the last couple of years, so at this point any such claims feel akin to crying wolf, but were he to fully cease making movies tomorrow, Side Effects is a reasonable enough film to end … 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 →

Review: Haywire, 2012, dir. Steven Soderbergh

Haywire, in its fashion, possesses many of the best qualities of its protagonist; like Mallory Kane, it’s lean, mean, efficient, and wholly focused on attaining its goals and realizing its purpose. It also teeters, occasionally, on the verge of emotional vulnerability. Neither Kane (MMA fighter Gina Carano) nor director Steven Soderbergh are especially willing to … 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 →

A Useful Review: The Girlfriend Experience, 2009, dir. Steven Soderbergh

There are probably specific expectations some might impose upon a film whose lead is a famous and popular porn star; for example, the promise of erotic visuals, the thrill of the voyeurism inherent to watching porn, and of course, chief of them all, the guarantee of smoldering on-screen sex. Why else would you hire Sasha … Continue reading →