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The long-forgotten comic book villain Black Adam makes for a quickly-forgotten movie
Jaume Collet-Serra’s dreadful Black Adam is damning evidence that Hollywood has forgotten why kids like superheroes in the first place.
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Billy Bob Thornton’s All the Pretty Horses had everything going for it
All the Pretty Horses should have been a sure thing, but was doomed by interference from one of history’s most notorious studio executives.
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Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho still slaps, 60 years later
Alfred Hitchcock’s always-relevant 1960 thriller Psycho still has the power to shock, amuse, and provoke.
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The sexual revolution freezes over in Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm
Ang Lee and James Schamus’ wise adaption of Rick Moody’s novel is also a triumph of art direction, casting, costuming, and sound design.
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Lou Reed and John Cale work through their complex feelings for Andy Warhol in Songs for Drella
Rather than set aside their differences, Reed and Cale meld them together in a theatrical song cycle dedicated to their early patron.
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Michael Haneke’s Funny Games confronts audiences with the violence they paid for
Director Michael Haneke has made Funny Games twice, a decade apart. They are essentially the same movie: nearly shot-for-shot, with the same title, similar music and location, and at least one of the actors physically resembling one of the original cast. The few adjustments include the spoken language, updated telephone technology, and added Americanisms. So…
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Rutger Hauer lives on anxiety, coffee, and chocolate, in Split Second
Tag yourself: “He lives on anxiety, coffee, and chocolate.” It me; can relate. Tony Maylam’s Split Second is probably forever doomed to be a cult favorite, but it’s a pity it’s not better known. It has a wild, sometimes even manic electricity that covers up most deficiencies. I happened to watch it back-to-back with another…
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Falling in love at the end of the world, in Wim Wenders’ Submergence
Ladies, if your fella isn’t returning your calls, maybe he’s a secret agent on a tippy-top secret mission for queen and country. Fellas, if your girl isn’t liking your posts, maybe she has zero bars because she’s doing science stuff on the ocean floor. I went into Submergence fully aware of the generally negative reviews,…
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Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore torches the legacy of Harry Potter
I worked at Warner Bros. throughout the original run of Harry Potter movies. In case that sounds exciting, I assure you it wasn’t; it was an extremely minor role in a vast corporation, that involved selling t-shirts, iPhone cases, and battery-powered toy wands online. But it was very easy for us all — a bunch…
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Star Trek: The Motion Picture was always out of step with the times
With a release history more tangled than a TNG time travel plot, Star Trek: The Motion Picture is now finally available in its most complete form yet: a 2022 4K remaster of the 2001 Director’s Edition of the 1979 film. Got that? Engadget has the full details, but in short, don’t call it a “restoration”.…
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Never Been Kissed: a wacky misunderstanding, or should somebody call the police?
Without thinking about it too much, the basic premise of Raja Gosnell’s Never Been Kissed sounds perfectly fine: an adorkable young adult gets a high school do-over. What could go wrong? And indeed, roughly the first half of Never Been Kissed is likable, powered almost entirely by Drew Barrymore’s trademark charm and quirk. But the…
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The Many Saints of Newark is Sopranos fanfic
As Solo and Rogue One were to Star Wars, The Many Saints of Newark is to The Sopranos: mere fanfic dressed up as a prequel. We did not need to learn how Uncle Junior hurt his back. Unpopular pop culture opinion: The Sopranos is overrated. Yes, it opened the floodgates for what came to be…