There’s something refreshing about the sharks featured in DANGEROUS ANIMALS >not< being the villains of the piece. Instead, they are presented on their own terms as majestic creatures of the deep who would really, really rather not deal with humans in any way shape or form, and that includes lunch. Instead, we have a human… Read More »
FROM THE WORLD OF JOHN WICK: BALLERINA
I miss the suit. I know it’s crazy, but the conservative, and bullet-proof. Black suit that John Wick sports while doing the impossible makes a statement. It does show up, as does Mr. Wick himself, in From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, but it only makes me miss it more. While, not as hyperbolically… Read More »
THE KARATE KID: LEGENDS
There are many montages in THE KARATE KID: LEGENDS. So many montages. Training montages. Hanging out montages. More training montages. Montages of flashbacks with narration. Montages of montages of flashbacks. As irksome as it is, it has the virtue of symbolizing the raison-d’etre of this sequel to a sequel to a reboot of a remake.… Read More »
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: THE FINAL RECKONING
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: THE FINAL RECKONING feels just a little too long, but that’s okay. It’s as though all involved were not quite ready to say goodbye in what may or may not be the last foray by Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt. To be honest, neither are we, and by we, of course, I mean… Read More »
HURRY UP TOMORROW
The phrase that floats to mind most relentlessly while watching HURRY UP TOMORROW is self-indulgent. The film, which follows a musician over the course of a fraught few days, lingers insistently on its star, Abel Tesfaye aka The Weeknd, a handsome man with a fine stage presence caught in a script he co-authored that seeks… Read More »
FRIENDSHIP
FRIENDSHIP is a sly rapscallion of a film, part edgy suburban noir, part situation tragedy, part existential comedy, and all a gloss on loneliness and alienation as viewed through the prism of Craig (Tim Robinson), a symphony of well-meaning beige schlubness. Writer/director Andrew DeYoung suffuses this cringe-genre satire with an ironic absurdity that serves all… Read More »
THUNDERBOLTS: THE NEW AVENGERS
Among the many laudable things to be found in THUNDERBOLTS: THE NEW AVENGERS is the best exploitation of the natural consonance to be heard in the name Bob since Jim Jarmusch’s DOWN BY LAW (look it up, you won’t be sorry). In addition, what we have here is a big, splashy superhero flick that doesn’t… Read More »
THE SURFER
THE SURFER is a sundrenched, blood-soaked examination of toxic masculinity and generational trauma that hearkens back to the symbolist dramas of the 60s and 70s with its surreal overtones and pointed commentary. It is also the kind of film for which Nicolas Cage was gifted to us by the universe. If for no other reason,… Read More »
THE TROUBLE WITH JESSICA
Falling into the subgenre of dinner parties gone disastrously wrong, THE TROUBLE WITH JESSICA, an astringent black comedy of ethics, finds five people who have been friends since their university days being forced by one of them to re-evaluate everything they thought they knew about themselves and each other. By the end of what will… Read More »
THE ACCOUNTANT 2
There is so much to love in THE ACCOUNTANT 2, or, rather, THE ACCOUNTANT2, recognizing the mathematical nature of the eponymous character’s profession. There’s a clever plot involving human traffickers, a Federal Agent walking a fine line between the letter of the law and a consequentialist philosophy of effective law enforcement, and a brother act… Read More »