Category: Movies
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Geneviève Bujold fights the medical patriarchy in Michael Crichton’s Coma
A thriller set among medical professionals, with just enough scientific accuracy to temper its science fiction, and a craven corporation perverting science for profit? If only Michael Crichton‘s Coma had been set in an amusement park, it would have been the most Michael Crichton movie ever. More than just a dry run for his hit…
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Noomi Rapace shoots ’em up in the Netflix exclusive Close
Noomi Rapace was seemingly set for big things after The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo films, but was shortly thereafter cruelly written out of her starring role in Ridley Scott’s Alien prequels. I can only imagine how it must hurt for an actor to “appear” in a sequel only as a corpse, as she did…
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Liam Neeson has a rough ride in The Commuter
Jaume Collet-Serra’s The Commuter is the best comedy of 2018. I’m still laughing about the running joke of the Metro North running up the 4/5/6 line in Manhattan. If you find yourself on the Metro North Hudson Line, Make a quick stop in Beacon for a burger at Meyer’s Old Dutch Food & Such; honestly…
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Nicolas Cage descends into hell in Panos Cosmatos’s Mandy
Panos Cosmatos’s Mandy is what you would get if you crossed Straw Dogs with Hellraiser, co-directed by Tarkovsky & Jodorowsky. Do you think Clive Barker saw this and said “hey, that’s my thing”? It’s also the rare movie where Nicolas Cage’s customarily crazed mania is juuuuuust right for the material. Whereas his… performative performance (shall…
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The documentary Together and Apart tells the genesis of Genesis
The venerable band Genesis reconvenes to tell their own story, from progressive rock outsiders to mainstream pop success story.
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Mr. Rogers consoles the country in Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
It’s a sad state of affairs when a documentary about one of the most simply good people to have ever lived must dedicate screentime to Trump, Brexit, and Fox News, but such is the world that conservatives have made. Even if no mention had been made of current affairs, Won’t You Be My Neighbor would…
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Darren Aronofsky’s “mother!” earns its exclamation point
Darren Aronofsky’s mother! is an allegory so undisguised that it barely qualifies as one. It’s more like a cinematic smoothie: blend one (1) King James Bible, the Big Bang / Big Crunch Wikipedia article, a heavy splash of Lars Von Trier-esque literal-as-metaphorical torture of a beautiful woman, season to taste with climate change science, and…
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Winnie-the-Pooh is a labor reformer in Disney’s Christopher Robin
Given its sluggish pace, depressive tone, and dramatization of the origin of Paid Time Off for postwar UK laborers, whom exactly was the intended audience for Christopher Robin? Kids with premature midlife crises and uncommonly long attention spans? Adults with low vocabularies and an acceptance of brain-bending metaphysics? Think about it too hard, and it’s…
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Why can’t Star Trek always be as good as The Undiscovered Country?
“Please let me know if there’s another way we can screw up tonight.” Not only is Nicholas Meyer’s The Undiscovered Country my personal favorite Star Trek movie, I may go far as to argue that it is the best. It truly ticks every box of what makes Star Trek Star Trek, and comes the closest…
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Love is having someone to embrace at the end, on Miracle Mile
The buzz is true; the under-the-radar cult gem Miracle Mile is surprisingly great. Harry (Anthony Edwards) and Julie’s (Mare Winningham) hellacious night on Los Angeles’ titular Miracle Mile suggests Before Sunrise crossed with Children of Men crossed with After Hours, but without the reprieve of a hopeful ending. Unless you consider life on a geologic…