The Good German (2006, Steven Soderbergh)
“You’re out there sellin’ love you don’t have.” Modern black-and-white movies with awesome photography (Man Who Wasn’t There) or at least very good photography (Good Night and Good Luck) are great to...
View ArticleIndiana Jones 4 (2008, Steven Spielberg)
There have been many films about aliens made by Steven Spielberg (E.T., Close Encounters, Men in Black, War of the Worlds) and George Lucas (Howard The Duck, Captain EO, The Ewok Adventure) but never...
View ArticleElizabeth 2: The Golden Age (2007, Shekhar Kapur)
The latest bit of historical bio-pic entertainment from Kapur (dir. of Bandit Queen, ugh). And it’s not great. One huge weakness is the writing. The writer of the original was here joined (very...
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Hot Fuzz (2007, Edgar Wright)
December 2008: Watched again on video, and it only gets better. Five (five!) commentary tracks to go, and two discs full of extras, wooo! Peter Jackson as Father Christmas: Marsha from Spaced: March...
View ArticleThe Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008, David Fincher)
AV Club: “The script comes from Eric Roth, who would probably by accused of borrowing too liberally from Forrest Gump if he hadn’t written that too.” Wow, dude also wrote that Eric Bana gambler love...
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Hanna (2011, Joe Wright)
Saoirse Ronan is raised by her rogue-spy dad (Eric “Hulk” Bana) in the woods with emphasis on survivalism and attack skills – specifically the skills to attack Cate Blanchett, who killed Ronan’s mom....
View ArticleCinderella (2015, Kenneth Branagh)
Part of Disney’s ongoing live-action-remake series. This one adds nothing to the Cinderella story, fails to update or improve it in any way, has no seeming artistic reason to exist. But gee, it’s...
View ArticleCarol (2015, Todd Haynes)
I knew this was based on a Patricia Highsmith story, but when I saw the opening scene I thought “oh no, is this a remake of Brief Encounter?” Fortunately it goes in a different direction pretty...
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Knight of Cups (2015, Terrence Malick)
Right in between the fade-out of Cannes Month into my Crime & Punishment Marathon, and the kicking-off of Criterion Month, a bunch of last year’s acclaimed auteur art masterpieces became available,...
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Manifesto (2017, Julian Rosefeldt)
I knew this was a new feature edit of a multi-screen installation piece in which various Cate Blanchetts recite historical manifestos, but didn’t realize it would have such terrific photography and...
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Thor 3: Ragnarok (2017, Taika Waititi)
I lose track of who’s supposed to be dead at the end of the previous movies, but Loki is alive all through this one, Odin (Anthony Hopkins with an eyepatch) dies here, unleashing Thor’s evil sister...
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Voyage of Time (2016, Terrence Malick)
Years after not being able to see this because we don’t have an imax theater, I realized it had been quietly released on blu-ray. Watched the 90-minute Cate Blanchett version after revisiting The Tree...
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Nightmare Alley (2021, Guillermo del Toro)
On the run after killing his dad, Bradley Cooper wanders mutely into a carnival needing work and food and gets shown around by Willem Dafoe. Ron Perlman is there of course, typecast as a strongman....
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Tár (2022, Todd Field)
Mostly set in Berlin. Lydia’s former protege Krista has killed herself and “grooming” accusations have been made, wife Sharon is leaving and taking their kid, new cellist Olga might live in a crumbling...
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