Bad horror movies are a dime a dozen, with their formulaic narratives and low, often limiting, budgets. 2024 alone has seen the bizarre Night Swim, an interesting idea poorly executed in Imaginary, and, more recently, Tarot, a daft concept that was more banal than spooky. To give those pictures’ credit, though, at least …
In the horrible post-apocalyptic future depicted in the Mad Max movies, where people have names like The Octoboss and Toast the Knowing, it was downright revolutionary of Mad Max’s mother to name him Max. In Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, two of the evil sidekicks are named Rictus Erectus (Nathan Jones) and, what …
Ryusuke Hamaguchi has never made the same film twice and has always approached each project he takes on with a different lens and perspective on what he did previously. It’s highly apparent just by watching his Oscar-winning feature, Drive My Car, a nearly three-hour-long, slow, and meditative drama, and his latest project, Evil …
The sun-soaked seediness of LA is immediately apparent in Sugar, Mark Protosevich’s neo-noir crime drama. Sugar follows Colin Farrell’s eponymous private detective hired for one case, which quickly spirals into a wider network of rich girls gone wrong, drugs, questionable law enforcement, polaroids, self-destruction, and other such Hollywood crime and its visual signifiers. John Sugar: A Golden-Hearted Detective …
Former Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat returns to the show after seven years away with Boom, an episode that feels like a compendium of his best and worst traits. His former episodes include firm fan favorites The Girl in the Fireplace and Blink, both high-concept stories that include deep emotional stakes to those involved. His time as showrunner from …
There is a phrase in pop culture that originates from an episode of Happy Days: jumping the shark. It implies a breakdown between the audience and the content, in which the audience stops being immersed in what is occurring on screen. In The Devil’s Chord, the latest Doctor Who episode, a god-like music thief …
Nostalgia, for better or worse, is a potent factor towards enjoyment. In Space Babies, Doctor Who’s first episode of a new season – the newly regenerated Doctor being played by Ncuti Gatwa – the nostalgia that was invoked for me is for one of the worst movies of all time: Baby Geniuses. Now, I know what …
Quentin Dupieux, the director of The Second Act (Le deuxième acte), who was also the writer, cinematographer, and editor of The Second Act, thanks his own brain in the credits. This is entirely what should be expected from Mr. Dupieux, whose works are – and this is meant as an extreme compliment – completely insane. He tends to work …
AppleTV+ seems to be carving out a nice niche for itself in prestige period miniseries that combine the holy trinity of the genre: star-studded casts, rich production design, and a topic of historical importance delivered with a glossy respect. Franklin, created by Kirk Ellis – perhaps previously best known for creating HBO’s magnificent miniseries John Adams – fits the …
How do you illustrate for the screen a life lived with physical limitations? You illustrate the life of the mind. In this biopic of writer Flannery O’Connor (Maya Hawke), the inventor of the ‘southern Gothic’ genre of literature, director Ethan Hawke (also the producer, co-writer, and Ms. Hawke’s father) chose to enact sequences from …
Mark Twain once said that, “History does not repeat itself. It rhymes.” The Planet of the Apes series, now on its tenth installment, embodies this. The original 1968 Charlton Heston vehicle ended with his character Taylor in a state of despair at realizing the world of ‘damn dirty apes’ that he crash-landed on was …
Wes Ball’s Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is a largely thrilling although imperfect continuation of the franchise. The Planet of the Apes franchise has become a staple in cinematic history. Starting with the 1968 film of the same name, audiences were swept away to another world. That film transported viewers …
Satirical and meta comedies can be hard to deliver effectively. Classics like Monty Python and The Holy Grail, The Truman Show, and the overall work of Mel Brooks revolutionized the concept. Now, those comedies have been ushered in for a new generation. Films like Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Cocaine Bear, and Weird: The Al Yankovic Story took …
Ryan Gosling can do no wrong when picking roles, as each film he stars in becomes something special. From comedies such as Crazy, Stupid, Love, and The Nice Guys to more dramatic roles such as in Lars and the Real Girl, The Notebook, and La La Land, every film is memorable, mainly due to his acting. With a slew …
Author/Vietnamese-American Professor Viet Thanh Nguyen’s novel The Sympathizer is a spy novel unlike any other. The Pulitzer Prize-winning book balances many different themes and ideas. Following an unnamed narrator, it tells a story that is equal parts political thriller, romance, and occasional comedy. That helped make the novel a resonatory and powerful piece of …
Directed by Hannah Marks (Don’t Make Me Go) and written by Elizabeth Berger and Isaac Aptaker (Love, Simon), Turtles All the Way Down is the adaptation of John Green’s novel of the same title. It tells the story of Aza Holmes (Isabela Merced), a teenager who strives to be a good daughter, …
We’re in an age of Star Wars saturation. With each passing year, there are more entries in the franchise than ever, which is more and more of a mixed bag. Last year, one of the new entries was Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi, a series of six shorts telling some of the …
Apple TV+ knows its strengths, focusing on the science fiction, comedy, and drama sections on its home page. Ted Lasso has noticeably been a huge hit, and seeing Apple TV+ lean into some of the funniest actors of our day has been a boon for them. Acapulco is the latest success for the streamer. …
It might be a little much to claim that Ryan Gosling is singlehandedly reinventing American masculinity onscreen. On the other hand, he has followed up his global triumph in Barbie (and winning of the Oscar in all our hearts with his performance of I’m Just Ken at the Academy Awards) with The Fall Guy, during which he …
I’m as much a fan of rom-coms as of any other genre mix. As long as the narrative doesn’t fall into the usual formulaic traps and quickly becomes just another cheap, forgettable variation of a story watched and rewatched countless times, I always find myself open-minded and ready to be …