AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM is a tired pastiche of the super-hero/sci-fi genre most notable for being a perfect distillation of the phenomenon known as “super-hero fatigue”. Smothered by its been-there, seen-that vibe, it presents little to recommend it beyond Randall Park as both the embodiment of egregious exposition and the voice of reason. He… Read More »
AMERICAN FICTION
At one point in AMERICANN FICTION, the provocatively named Thelonious “Monk” Ellison (Jeffrey Wright), notes that there is no moral to his story. Perhaps, though, that >is< the moral. In his adaptation of Percival Everett’s novel Erasure, Cord Jefferson takes on many issues for which there are no clear-cut answers, but for which the questions… Read More »
WONKA
It would have been more wrong than I can enumerate not to reference 1971’s WILLIE WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY in its prequel, WONKA. Hence the purple cutaway coat, the top hat, and not just the only possible Oompa-Loompa song, but also the signature wistfulness of “Pure Imagination” by Leslie Bricusse & Anthony Newly. Screenwriters… Read More »
DOWN IN DALLAS TOWN
DOWN IN DALLAS TOWN is a melancholy descant on the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963. It begins typically enough, with the audio recording of an eyewitness detailing what he saw right in front of him that day in Dealey Plaza when Kennedy’s head was shattered by bullet. The throat catches, and he has to… Read More »
MAY DECEMBER
The opening credits for MAY DECEMBER play over a melodramatic score of insistent, skittery chords. Those chords will return, but at moments that to us seem banal, yet in the psyche of the December part of the cast, Gracie Yoo, played by the inimitable Julianne Moore, they signal a worldview not so much at odds… Read More »
THE MARVELS
There is one thing you can say for sure about THE MARVELS. There is a whole lot of it, and most of it involves overwrought CGI effects. They are beautifully executed, but eventually become tiresome, not just for the repetitive nature of the fight sequences, but also for the sheer scale, which starts at 11… Read More »
PRISCILLA
Rumor has it that the late Lisa Marie Presley was so incensed by the characterization of her father in Sofia Coppola’s PRISCILLA that she vowed to actively denounce the film. This despite the cooperation of her mother, who is also the film’s subject, Priscilla Beaulieu Presley. Further, Elvis Presley Enterprises did not sign off on… Read More »
THE KILLER
David Fincher’s THE KILLER is as methodical as its protagonist, the philosophizing hit man in the midst of pickle that challenges his core nihilistic belief system in which karma doesn’t figure, nor does luck. The irony may be lost on this unnamed protagonist, but not on us as we are treated to a cavalcade of… Read More »
THE HOLDOVERS
It is a tried and true formula, and when it works well, one that can be endearing. Not original, but endearing. And so it is with THE HOLDOVERS, Alexander Payne’s beautifully realized coming-of-age tale set at an exclusive New England boarding school where the real lessons are not the ones taught in the classrooms. This… Read More »
THE CREATOR
For such a thoughtful film, THE CREATOR is curiously underwritten. Building to several emotional crescendos during its two hours and thirteen minutes of running time, the intended resonance is, alas, subsumed by the spotty nature of a narrative that proceeds gamely from one set piece to another without giving us much in the way of… Read More »
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