THE DOG STARS is a grim and loping thing that circles its points without the energy to transmute them into the powerful statement they were meant, and that they need, to be. Alas. As a speculation on what a post-apocalyptic America might be, it is not without its merits, but as a filmed entertainment, its… Read More »
FALL 2: DEADPOINT
Click here for the flashback interview with Scott Mann for FALL. It is always with just a bit of trepidation that I approach sequels. Can it recapture the magic that made the original such a success that the powers that be felt a sequel was worth the time and the money? Can it be worth… Read More »
MUTINY
I have never made a secret of my abiding belief that Jason Statham makes anything he’s in better. There is something about his brand of unstudied cool that has a mystique all its own with none of the showy bravado of a Brando, or the ironic remove of McQueen. I bring this up because for… Read More »
THE DEB
THE DEB is a throwback of a musical comedy executed to perfection by director Rebel Wilson. It has a mid-century heart and a modern sensibility combined seamlessly into a rollicking good time that isn’t afraid to drop the F-bomb. Based on the Australian stage play, it makes its transition to the big screen without missing… Read More »
ICE CREAM MAN
There may be no more twisted filmmaker working today than Eli Roth. I say that with admiration and with affection. Since introducing himself with CABIN FEVER in 2002, he has honed his skill at creating a perfect storm of horror, satire, and human drama. And so it is with ICE CREAM MAN, a subversive gloss… Read More »
THE ODYSSEY
There is a reason Homer’s ODYSSEY has lasted for so many millennia. Its themes, its imagery, its all-too human portraits of heroes and deities who are less than perfect have sparked imagination and found purchase with whatever the zeitgeist is at any given time. And so it is with Christopher Nolan’s adaptation. It is a… Read More »
PRESSURE
The trick in making a film where the outcome is well known is to make what leads up to that outcome as suspenseful as a surprise ending would have been. PRESSURE is a sterling example of how that is done. Based on a true story, it is a lesser-known story of D-Day in which we… Read More »
PILLION
In PILLION, we learn a great deal about gay biker culture in the UK. This is to be expected in a film wherein a sweet man (Harry Melling) discovers a side of himself he never suspected after falling under the commanding spell of one of those ci-mentioned bikers (Alexander Skarsgård). What is unexpected is discovering… Read More »
SEND HELP
The fruits of entitlement face off with workers controlling the means of production in Sam Raimi’s scathingly brilliant, and wickedly funny, take on gender politics and economic power, SEND HELP. Sure, we’ve seen this scenario before in THE ADMIRABLE CRICHTON, SWEPT AWAY (the Wertmuller version, please), and most recently in TRIANGLE OF SADNESS, which owes… Read More »
CRIME 101
Click here for the flashback interview with Bart Layton for AMERICAN ANIMALS. Sometimes an ending can make or break a film. And so it is with CRIME 101, a thoughtful meditation on what happens when following the rules just doesn’t pay off. The payoff to a narrative that could have used some tightening is not… Read More »
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