At one point during Rian Johnson’s GLASS ONION, one of the character wails “What is reality?” It’s a fair question considering the plot twist that has just been revealed to the suitably colorful cast of characters, and one that neatly sums up why Mr. Johnson’s second installment in the casebook of Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig)… Read More »
DON’T WORRY DARLING
DON’T WORRY DARLING is not the most coherent of feminist manifestos, but it is an ambitious one, exploring as it does several variants of toxic masculinity, some unexpected, but no less pernicious for the surprise factor. Using a devoted couple, Alice (Florence Pugh) and Jack (Harry Styles) as the focal point of gender dynamics, the… Read More »
SEE HOW THEY RUN
SEE HOW THEY RUN is a handsomely mounted period piece with a clever premise undermined by an irksome dithering about its tone and a rampant directorial lethargy. Calling out tropes from cinema and literary mysteries with the sort of wild abandon from which the pacing would have profited, this uneven comedy takes us to 1953,… Read More »
BODIES, BODIES, BODIES
BODIES, BODIES, BODIES answers the question “What if a group of friends, trapped in a house in the middle of nowhere, suddenly turned on each other?” Actually, the more salient question is what if a group of friends, with varying degrees of irritating personality disorders, found themselves in those circumstances, would anyone care who made… Read More »
VENGEANCE
Ostensibly a mystery, and a nifty one at that, VENGEANCE is much more. BJ Novak has spun a savage takedown of the media and elite presumptions, but one that is also considered, literate, and even a bit compassionate. At least on the level of allowing redemption of sorts for the silly creatures called human beings… Read More »
WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING
One senses that the novel of the same name on which WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING possessed some lovely prose. Certainly, when the narration includes lines from the book, there is the dark poetic ring of classic Southern Gothic reverberating from the musings on death intoned by the adult version of Kya (Daisy Edgar-Jones). Whatever philosophical… Read More »
THE BOB’S BURGERS MOVIE
THE BOB’S BURGER MOVIE gives us a few origin stories for the long-running animated sit-com artfully woven into a brand-new musical adventure. Far from playing out as an extended episode of the series, it expands to fill its feature-length running time with a murder mystery, a financial crisis, and a nifty low-speed chase involving an… Read More »
THE ABANDON
One of the most intriguing sub-genres of sci-fi/horror cinema is that which is accomplished with few, if any, special effects. The best of these, such as COHERENCE or THEY LOOK LIKE PEOPLE, to name but two, are so thoughtfully conceived and intelligently crafted that the addition of gizmos, gadgets, or those ci-mentioned special effects would… Read More »
DEATH ON THE NILE
And so with DEATH ON THE NILE (2022), we learn about the man behind the moustaches. That would be Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie’s cerebral Belgian detective devoted to his “little grey cells” and keeping order in the world. The former gets short shrift, mention-wise, in this adaptation, while the latter rears its compulsive head in… Read More »
LAST NIGHT IN SOHO
There are many things to laud to the high heavens about Edgar Wright’s LAST NIGHT IN SOHO, an ingenious take on the ghost story set in the present and in 1960s London that endlessly surprises and delights. Let’s start, though, with the genius of casting three icons of that era: Rita Tushingham, Diana Rigg, and Terrence Stamp in significant roles. It’s emblematic of just how brilliantly thought out this homage to the Swinging 60s is.
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