Civil War
Why Civil War? Alex Garland’s thing as a writer and sometimes director seems to be high-concept, high-quality 5-minutes-into-the-future speculations with problematic endings. 28 Days Later, Sunshine, Annihilation – all are dressed up in nice conceptions, vignettes and visualisations but find
Civil War
Why Civil War? Alex Garland’s thing as a writer and sometimes director seems to be high-concept, high-quality 5-minutes-into-the-future speculations with problematic endings. 28 Days Later, Sunshine, Annihilation – all are dressed up in nice conceptions, vignettes and visualisations but find
Furiosa
Those enamoured of George Miller’s winning way with physical stunts and effects will find some of their dismay at his adoption of CGI for the Max franchise warranted. Others curious to see how his flair for choreography at high speed
Furiosa
Those enamoured of George Miller’s winning way with physical stunts and effects will find some of their dismay at his adoption of CGI for the Max franchise warranted. Others curious to see how his flair for choreography at high speed
Don’t Look Up
Well sure it’s obvious. Sure, there are much better movies to compare it to. Sure, it’s not that funny. But maybe it’s not a comedy. Maybe it’s just a tragedy – a dramatic form contemporary audiences aren’t so familiar with.
Don’t Look Up
Well sure it’s obvious. Sure, there are much better movies to compare it to. Sure, it’s not that funny. But maybe it’s not a comedy. Maybe it’s just a tragedy – a dramatic form contemporary audiences aren’t so familiar with.
The Power of the Dog
A heroic female director lobs a polite grenade into the middle of, or maybe a bit after the middle of, a climate of recrimination about sexual misbehaviour. Is the work championing a cause, or is the cause appropriating and filtering
The Power of the Dog
A heroic female director lobs a polite grenade into the middle of, or maybe a bit after the middle of, a climate of recrimination about sexual misbehaviour. Is the work championing a cause, or is the cause appropriating and filtering
The Outpost
The Outpost tells the true story of the bloody fall of a remote US army base in Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush mountains. It suffers from problems common to many patriotic war dramas. While the there-but-for-the-grace-of-god moments of mortal terror and nope-not-for-me
The Outpost
The Outpost tells the true story of the bloody fall of a remote US army base in Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush mountains. It suffers from problems common to many patriotic war dramas. While the there-but-for-the-grace-of-god moments of mortal terror and nope-not-for-me
Dune (2021)
Despite the enormous amount of air displaced by the arrival of this, the third screen-telling of the Frank Herbert saga, Dune is unremarkable. It’s not bad at all. It’s a fun, big-screen, epic watch with pleasing production design, a fine cast
Dune (2021)
Despite the enormous amount of air displaced by the arrival of this, the third screen-telling of the Frank Herbert saga, Dune is unremarkable. It’s not bad at all. It’s a fun, big-screen, epic watch with pleasing production design, a fine cast
I Am Mother
Until a recent general improvement in story output, the problem with many Netflix productions seemed to be an eschewing of rigorous script assessment, likely attributable to the subscription model prioritising quantity over quality. I Am Mother, a Netflix production from 2018,
I Am Mother
Until a recent general improvement in story output, the problem with many Netflix productions seemed to be an eschewing of rigorous script assessment, likely attributable to the subscription model prioritising quantity over quality. I Am Mother, a Netflix production from 2018,
Marriage Story
As a warning to parents about the awfulness of divorce and California divorce law in particular, this is a worthy essay. As an exploration of the many dimensions of pain entailed, it’s also a sterling effort. As an arrow aimed
Marriage Story
As a warning to parents about the awfulness of divorce and California divorce law in particular, this is a worthy essay. As an exploration of the many dimensions of pain entailed, it’s also a sterling effort. As an arrow aimed
Whiplash
Does jazz really live at the Lincoln Centre? Is the way of the jazz warrior really from music school to there? Perhaps Whiplash’s original conception described a classical music prodigy, navigating a musical realm wherein the concept of genius is much
Whiplash
Does jazz really live at the Lincoln Centre? Is the way of the jazz warrior really from music school to there? Perhaps Whiplash’s original conception described a classical music prodigy, navigating a musical realm wherein the concept of genius is much
Black Panther
Judging by its reception, Black Panther did something right. Cinematically there’s not much to get excited about, but maybe there’s a lot to think about. Black Panther is ridden with cliches and its dialogue is entirely expositional. But underneath this painful
Black Panther
Judging by its reception, Black Panther did something right. Cinematically there’s not much to get excited about, but maybe there’s a lot to think about. Black Panther is ridden with cliches and its dialogue is entirely expositional. But underneath this painful
It Follows
How did this happen? Its like someone, while absently pondering mash-ups of horror sub-genres, put The Ring’s pass-it-on curse next to Halloween’s teenage body count and stumbled upon a Tutankhamun’s tomb of treasures. It Follows‘s simple premise of sexually transmitted
It Follows
How did this happen? Its like someone, while absently pondering mash-ups of horror sub-genres, put The Ring’s pass-it-on curse next to Halloween’s teenage body count and stumbled upon a Tutankhamun’s tomb of treasures. It Follows‘s simple premise of sexually transmitted
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
Style triumphs so resoundingly here that substance has been driven almost entirely from the screen. Cara Delevigne wins by virtue of playing the only character that vacillates. Well actually the CGI white masai people are kind of interesting but only
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
Style triumphs so resoundingly here that substance has been driven almost entirely from the screen. Cara Delevigne wins by virtue of playing the only character that vacillates. Well actually the CGI white masai people are kind of interesting but only
The Florida Project
A more-than-you-can-eat pizza-slice of life, hot from the florid state – more specifically Orlando. It’s a short walk from Disneyland but a long, alligator-infested way downstream. The Florida Project features one of the most striking child performances in recent memory
The Florida Project
A more-than-you-can-eat pizza-slice of life, hot from the florid state – more specifically Orlando. It’s a short walk from Disneyland but a long, alligator-infested way downstream. The Florida Project features one of the most striking child performances in recent memory
Wheelman
The vaguely familiar Frank Grillo makes a classy and economical pitch at booting a Stallone/Van-Damme/Strachan tough-guy franchise. Director-writer Jeremy Rush has mashed Locke with Driver. As a car-chase movie, like nearly every car-chase movie other than Bullitt, it’s a fail. It
Wheelman
The vaguely familiar Frank Grillo makes a classy and economical pitch at booting a Stallone/Van-Damme/Strachan tough-guy franchise. Director-writer Jeremy Rush has mashed Locke with Driver. As a car-chase movie, like nearly every car-chase movie other than Bullitt, it’s a fail. It
The Shape of Water
Some strong elements combine to achieve less than their sum. A fine cast acts out some hot topics and at the helm is the director possibly trying harder than anyone else today to make movies that look good. It does
The Shape of Water
Some strong elements combine to achieve less than their sum. A fine cast acts out some hot topics and at the helm is the director possibly trying harder than anyone else today to make movies that look good. It does
Blade Runner 2049
Deckhard is back, Hampton Fancher is back, the rain is back, as is some of the neon, albeit faded behind some kind of airborne filth with lumps in it. Blade Runner in the eighties was a world crippled and depressed
Blade Runner 2049
Deckhard is back, Hampton Fancher is back, the rain is back, as is some of the neon, albeit faded behind some kind of airborne filth with lumps in it. Blade Runner in the eighties was a world crippled and depressed
Nightcrawler
Nightcrawler crawls over the line where news eats itself, not just blurring the report and the reporter but selling a kind of news that is self-creating, like reality television, with hapless unpaid actors forced to play out scenarios of some network
Nightcrawler
Nightcrawler crawls over the line where news eats itself, not just blurring the report and the reporter but selling a kind of news that is self-creating, like reality television, with hapless unpaid actors forced to play out scenarios of some network
By The Sea
The Brangelina vanity pic really isn’t that bad. However its punchline is straight out of that famous picture starring Burton and Taylor, which sadly then makes everything else about By The Sea seem familiar – the soon-to-be-divorced-in-real-life actors, the younger
By The Sea
The Brangelina vanity pic really isn’t that bad. However its punchline is straight out of that famous picture starring Burton and Taylor, which sadly then makes everything else about By The Sea seem familiar – the soon-to-be-divorced-in-real-life actors, the younger
Alien: Covenant
As has been observed before regarding Prometheus, Alien: Covenant is trying to build conceptual sci-fi on the burial grounds of what began as a simple, stylish, terrifying horror story. This alleged prequel to the Alien saga, now in its second
Alien: Covenant
As has been observed before regarding Prometheus, Alien: Covenant is trying to build conceptual sci-fi on the burial grounds of what began as a simple, stylish, terrifying horror story. This alleged prequel to the Alien saga, now in its second
Doctor Strange
This latest comic superhero activation is notable for the first inspired and visionary (rather than merely pragmatic) use of visual effects in a blockbuster since Avatar.
Doctor Strange
This latest comic superhero activation is notable for the first inspired and visionary (rather than merely pragmatic) use of visual effects in a blockbuster since Avatar.