Month: December 2020
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Soul
If you need a palate cleanser after the wanton nightmare that was Wonder Woman 1984, Pixar’s got a movie with a little Soul for you. What were you put on Earth to do? That’s the question at the heart of Soul, the new Pixar film from director Pete Docter. Joe, a middle school band teacher,…
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Why Season 2 of The Mandalorian Spells Doom for the Series
The Second Season of The Mandalorian has proven itself to be flashier than the first. But its storytelling has devolved into a plodding Disney formula. The Mandalorian is the type of show I would’ve gone apeshit over if I was 13. And that’s not really meant to be a derogatory claim, despite it sounding snobby…
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Wonder Woman 1984
Wonder Woman 1984 is the sequel to a movie that showed the Hollywood dummies that people will pay to see heroes beyond straight white dudes. Wonder Woman 1984 is a 2 ½ hour slog that takes most of the wonder out of the woman. More like, Blunder Woman Widescreen Weighty-Bore, amirite? The movie suffers from…
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Another Round
Danish auteur Thomas Vinterberg returns with a soused up dramedy about four teachers who commit to a rather intoxicating social experiment. Another Round has the premise of a raunchy Vince Vaughn vehicle circa 2008. The new Danish flick from Thomas Vinterberg (The Hunt, Celebration) is stuffed to the brim with the kind of premise-driven comedic…
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Saving Grace – D.M. Barr
DM Barr is a writer with a few books and a number of awards under her belt. Her book Saving Grace is a psychological thriller. Murder mysteries are a genre that has always been popular, but one needs to dig deeper, as they also can be broken down into subgenres: there’s the Noir/hard-bitten detective…
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Because Christmas is Only 2 Weeks Away!
It’s okay if you decorated a tree in mid-November, and it’s okay that I’m starting to watch one Christmas movie a day now. 2020 could use a month of everyone feeling really good, and an extra-extra-long Christmas attitude might be just the excuse to do exactly that. Bake some holiday cookies; video chat with a…
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The Call
The Call is a South Korean time travel thriller that’s full of energy and manages to innovate a well-worn subgenre. Check it out on Netflix. The latest example of South Korea’s cinematic prowess, Lee Chung-hyun’s time travel thriller The Call was recently released on Netflix. This pulse pounding movie brings a ton of innovation to…
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Mank
David Fincher’s Mank will be a brilliant look at the writing of Citizen Kane for some, but an unholy bore for others. And that’s okay. If you told me you didn’t connect with David Fincher’s new film Mank, I’d be okay with that. I wouldn’t accuse you of not liking a movie without superheroes or…
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Black Bear
Aubrey Plaza shines in one of her best performances in Black Bear, a somewhat experimental film that’s compelling even if it doesn’t always add up. Experimental film can open up new avenues of storytelling that show us the creativity beyond the traditional three act structure — or it can seem like a tiring and pretentious…
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Because You’ve Seen All the Clint Eastwood Westerns So Many Times
The spaghetti western has all but disappeared from modern movies – unless you know where to look. It’s been so hard to make a good, old fashioned western for the last twenty years that when the mighty Walt Disney Pictures made The Lone Ranger (2013), it sucked, flopped and nobody cared. Tarantino took a couple of whacks…