THE DEAD DON’T DIE takes the tropes, idioms, and beloved foibles of low-budget zombie flicks and, with a skillful flick of its auteur’s cinematic wrist, recontextualizes them into a stylized gloss on the new normal of 2019. Certainly the “Make America White Again” ball cap sported by the most reviled citizen (Steve Buscemi) of sleepy… Read More »
SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY
Click here for the flashback interview with Alden Ehrenreich for BEAUTIFUL CREATURES. SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY annotates and amplifies the mythos surrounding that devilish anti-hero of the franchise, Han Solo. Set well before the events of EPISODE IV: A NEW HOPE, it introduces us to Han before he learned to fly, but after he… Read More »
SAW
There is one glaring, not to mention, annoying faux pas in Leigh Wannell and James Wanns otherwise promising feature film debut, SAW. Its a testament to all that comes before and after that it doesn’t to sink this otherwise effective work. This is a horror flick that has more than a soupcon of gore, but… Read More »
SHOOTER
At some point during an action/adventure/thriller flick, the audience is forced to make a choice about the suspension of disbelief. If the film in question is either a strict, but smartly written procedural or an over-the-top fantasy, such decisions are easy. Think the impudent hyperbole of 24 or the taut psychological games of BREACH. Alas,… Read More »
HONEYDRIPPER
Crossroads is the operative theme for John Sayle’s homage to the power and the joy of music, HONEYDRIPPER, and an apt one. It looms large in the legend of delta blues, Sayles has even included a Robert Johnson-like figure who appears mysteriously from time to time with a guitar that is like one that the… Read More »