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“Hey, have you ever wanted to watch a version of the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale that added in unnecessary amounts of CGI, weird side stories involving fortune tellers, and tonally dissonant cutesy animals scurrying about the castle? If so, then have I got the monstrosity for you! A completely fo” read more
“Director Bob Clark seems preoccupied with the yuletide as his two most beloved creations, this film and A Christmas Story, examine the holiday through vastly different prisms. A Christmas Story is delightful as it alternates between the saccharine undertones of nostalgia and spiky bits of humor, yet” read more
“Whatās shocking here is that it took so long for Steven Spielberg to finally work for Disney. He the purveyor of the candy-coated family-friendly adventures filled to the brim with a sense of wonder and awe, often with a dash of darkness lurking underneath to keep the tension going. Is he the righ” read more
“Props to Natalie Portmanās writing and directing debut for being such a smartly handled adaptation of a seminal work about Jewish history and identity. Does her artistic ambition exceed her grasp? Absolutely, but this is no mere vanity project by the star as much as it is a truly invigorating work” read more
“For my money, the best horror films are the ones where the horror can be scanned as literal or metaphorical, so enter The Babadook. Jennifer Kentās debut horror film is a striking work of minimalism and subversion of expectations as the routine elements of a supernatural thriller are lined up then” read more
“Less a film on its own merits than it is something engineered to feel like a relic from Hollywoodās revolutionary period between 1967 and 1982. Does it succeed? Well, thatās more of a volatile question, isnāt it? Aināt Them Bodies Saints is a gorgeous ode to a bygone Americana, but itās li” read more
“Emotional depth gets lost in Joe Wrightās adaptation of Anna Karenina, but it sure is beautiful to stare at. Leo Tolstoyās novel of familial disintegration and the romance that leads to its main characterās eventual destruction is no stranger to film, so you need a new hook to make your versio” read more
“I know you could say this about every Lee Daniels movie but what the hell was The Paperboy? Danielsā films are frequently hot and bothered, highly pulpy explorations of important topics, ones that give in to a Dallas/Dynasty-like veneer of sleaze and suds more often than not, and The Paperboy is n” read more
“Ostensibly a crime movie, Out of Sight is a film thatās obsessed with dialog, behavior, and movie star charisma and sensuality than it is with any particular criminal activity. This isnāt a complaint at all, merely an observation of the structure and emphasis in Steven Soderberghās adaptation.” read more
“Well, isnāt this just a fun, modest movie about a group of Dublin musicians trying to make something of themselves by playing American soul music of the 50s and 60s. thereās no great lesson to impart, which is quite refreshing, just a good time to be had watching a batch of chain-smoking, foul-m” read more
“Shirley Jacksonās seminal haunted house novel gets the film adaptation treatment deserving of its artistry and exemplary skill in Robert Wiseās 1963 feature, The Haunting. He captures the emotional unease of the characters, most notably Eleanor, so well and all without displaying a ghostly visio” read more
You Make It Feel Like Christmas (Deluxe Edition)
“The luxurious retro treatment of last yearās You Make It Feel Like Christmas gets five songs appended in this deluxe edition. Gwen Stefaniās vibrato still sounds energized and comfortable among the Wall of Sound-style live instrumentation, yet the selection of covers still skews too hard on the ” read more
“Super-group or side-project? Probably somewhere in-between, honestly, when all is said and done given one participantās inability to focus on anything for very long. Dreamcar is a loving ode to mid-80s synthpop in all of its glory, and something of a reductive compression of the entire genreās m” read more
“A popular television makes the leap to the big screen, and the limitations of the medium become greatly apparent. What makes the television show so enjoyable in more digestible form becomes bloated, and the adage that television is merely āa movie, but longerā is proven false. Sitcoms tend to ma” read more
“In one of her many hilarious moments of self-awareness, Cher proclaimed herself the Lazarus of pop music onstage during her set at the 1999 Divas Live show. It was right before she performed āBelieve,ā but it could just as easily reflect her seemingly inexhaustible ability to disappear and reapp” read more
“The Assassin is beautiful to behold, but thereās no narrative or character to give you a firm grasp. Itās hypnotic and narcotizing beauty for the sake of it with nothing to tether your interest. Character motivations, relationships, even a coherent story or timeline is all abstracted or diffused” read more
“Taking a short film, in this case I Donāt Want to Go Back Alone and blowing it up to feature-length can have unintended consequences of distorting the might and power of the original. Thank god that The Way He Looks extends that shortās empathy and compassion, and its minute details in which blo” read more
“Whether or not youāll engage with Moonrise Kingdom will be easily discerned whtin the opening minutes as itās a free association of Wes Andersonās numerous quirks and obsessions. We explore a familial home and the complicated relationship therein by viewing everything as if it were a series of” read more
“The hard truth is this: Brett Ratnerās a āfor hireā director without any vision of his own. His background is in music videos and this has left him with the distinct inability to let things breathe or rest. A suspenseful story wilts under his eye because of this, and Red Dragon plays like warm” read more
“Somehow Paul Schrader is behind the lens of this limp-dick erotic thriller? Man, weāre a long way off from the atmosphere and palpable tension of his greatest films, like the screenplay for Taxi Driver or his directorial work in Affliction. Just as two examples of his intellectual movie-making pro” read more
“Disneyās love for orphans-in-the-wild was prominent in 2016 between this remake, their second live-action Jungle Book, and a journey into Roald Dahlās macabre world in The BFG. All of them are best when detailing the quietest moments of the wild, imaginative lives of their urchins, especially Pe” read more
“Five years separate the first film and this sequel, both in real-time and in the filmās continuity. And those five years have not been exactly kind to foursome, both in the filmās narrative and the final product. Ghostbusters II is a prime example of a sequel providing diminishing returns. Ā ” read more
“The Venn diagram between would-be academics and blue-collar workers is a near perfect circle in Ghostbusters, a near fairy tale of trade jobs thwarting the paranormal. Only in New York would something like this fly. I mean, what other city would find citizens barely raising an eyebrow at the sight o” read more
“Adaptation works wonders for Quentin Tarantino. Sure, he canāt help himself when it comes to populating his film with a sprawling running time and (so much) jive talking, but Jackie Brown remains his most mature, accomplished, and satisfactory work. Thereās shocking bits of violence here, but mu” read more
“Maybe if this had been remade with La Diva Streisand in 1966 instead of 1976 things would be different, but thatās not the world we live in. Streisandās version of A Star is Born, do you really think the credited writers (including Joan Didion!) and director Frank Pierson actually had a say in t” read more
“Is this supposed to be some kind of parody of the hysterical Christian morality plays of Tyler Perry, or some kind of running commentary/satirical take on them? Is there any way to come to Blackbird that doesnāt end in you walking away completely confounded by its flagrant and vulgar mishmash of t” read more
“You know, it seems like writer/director/star Philipp Karner is working through some deeply personal stuff throughout Like You Mean It. Shame he didnāt invite the audience along for his personal journey and mea culpa. Like You Mean It is glacial and opaque, much like its main character, and weāre” read more
“Vampires, Neil Jordan, and Saoirse Ronan looks like a winning combination on paper, but Byzantium all style and no substance. Ronan is customarily subtle, poignant, and nuanced, and Jordan imbues the entire thing with his austerity and low-key eroticism, but thereās just not enough story to justif” read more
“Fritz Langās first big hit, with Metropolis just a few short years away, may not be as ingenious or vital as his later works, but itās still fascinating to watch as a primer on the earliest parts of his career. Itās something of a morality play/parable between a young woman who has recently lo” read more
“Between this and Argo, boy has American cinema turned an endlessly complicated event into a two-dimensional construct. Historical context or a decent grasp on the complexities at play? Donāt look here. Compelling and multi-layered characters? Nope, try again. But at least you get an international ” read more