MORGAN is a high-minded film that wants us all to ponder what it means to be human. Alas, the most ponder-worthy thing in this film, which once again shows the result of humankind playing God, is wondering how Kate Mara managed to do all that running through the piney woods in those very high heels. … Read More »
THE HATEFUL EIGHT
THE HATEFUL EIGHT is an impudent, pugnacious comedy that uses the synthetic nature of its stylized homage idiom to be a whip-smart consideration of race, gender, politics, situational ethics, and very, very bad teeth. The genre is the western, but the tone is thoroughly modern as a group of the damned journey through the desolate… Read More »
IN THE CUT
IN THE CUT is not just a bad film, it is a laughably bad film. This would-be erotic thriller wants to discomfit us by delving into the psychological underpinnings of sex and violence and yet succeeds only in making us feel sorry for the people who tried so hard and came up with bupkis. One… Read More »
THE JACKET
THE JACKET begins as an intriguing, even unsettling consideration of time, space, and the nature of reality. But in a twist as breathtaking as it is unexpected, it commits the mortal sin of becoming conventional. Its all the more disappointing because of its director, John Maybury, a filmmaker and artist who was iconoclast Derek Jarmans… Read More »