During these past few months, if you had asked me what movie I was the most excited to see, I probably would have chosen this one. Maybe this was because it was a popular source of discussion over the Internet, or because somebody as well-known as Denis Villeneuve (Blade Runner 2049) directed it, or simply […]
From what I know, there were very few movies my parents saw together that they turned off less than midway through. The 2006 dark road dramedy Little Miss Sunshine, however, was one of them, mainly because, in their own words, the whole thing was so “depressing” (particularly since “everybody was always arguing”) that they couldn’t […]
The first—and, with any luck, the last—remake of the ’80s slasher classic Child’s Play has left me somewhat split. On one hand, I want to praise it for at least trying to do something a little different in an era where so many remakes/reboots blandly copy what was laid out before them, but on the […]
The title for At Close Range may be a pretty big misnomer (despite my immediate assumptions, it is not a corny action movie or spy flick—though that didn’t stop me from going in expecting one of those things anyway), but ironically enough, it may actually be the most fitting one for a film of this […]
Confession time: despite fully understanding the appeal they may have upon some people (particularly among a few members of my family), I simply can’t bring myself to watch most romantic comedies. Not that all films in the “rom-com” genre are inherently bad, but most of the ones I’ve seen are generally so listless, unfunny, and […]
It may be tough to get exactly right, but great writers really tend to make great writing look easy. Take a look at Kurt Vonnegut (one of my all-time favorite authors), for instance: his unmistakable blend of still-timely satire, pitch-black comedy, and humorously tragic stories cannot be replicated by anybody else, yet in his best […]
Before Being John Malkovich, Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman were little more than two aspiring artists (the former a successful music video director, the latter a struggling screenwriter) who knew nothing about each other. Jonze was easily the more famous of the two, but not unlike Kaufman, any semblance of work on the silver screen […]
It’s not very often that a film leaves me wanting to know more about it, yet at the same time, completely and utterly satisfied with most everything I’ve seen onscreen. In fact, searching my memory for examples now, I can only come up with a couple: Brazil (Terry Gilliam’s superb dystopian fantasy, which has to […]
Child’s Play 2, despite somehow being seen by some as better than its predecessor (the only—and I repeat, the only—thing about it that even remotely sparked my interest), is exactly what I feared it would be: a pretty lackluster sequel to a surprisingly clever and unique horror flick. For hardcore Chucky fans and slasher buffs, […]
As revered among the cult crowd as it may be now, Up in Smoke was a movie destined to be misunderstood upon its initial release. Critics walked into it expecting a tight, fairly straightforward comedy from Cheech and Chong (a countercultural comedy team that had been performing for ten years before the thought of making a movie […]
