I stand by that title. Reagan (2024) is an astonishingly incompetent and cynical attempt to pass off pseudo-religious myth as history. Written by Howard Klausner (Space Cowboys) based on the book The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism… Read More ›
In the history of cinema, there are more stories of the films not made than of the ones made — the stories deemed uninteresting or lacking an audience; the stories deemed unsellable or absent in creativity. Sometimes there’s a happy… Read More ›
By this point in 2024, there’ve been three M. Night Shyamalan projects released in theaters or on streaming. In August, serial killer thriller Trap starring Josh Hartnett (Oppenheimer; The Faculty) and Shyamalan’s daughter, Saleka Shyamalan, landed in theaters and comes… Read More ›
In 2002, two-time Academy Award nominated writer and director M. Night Shyamalan was still trying to live up to the hype from The Sixth Sense (1999), a massive success and guarantor for a career that would become one of the… Read More ›
Board book, hard cover, or soft — chances are, at some point in your life, you encountered author Crockett Johnson’s children’s book Harold and the Purple Crayon. A tale of wonder, the brief adventure features a toddler/little kid-aged boy in… Read More ›
Originally created by Bryan Woods (65; Heretic) and Scott Beck (65; Heretic), under the vision of actor/writer/director John Krasinski (IF; A Quiet Place), the A Quiet Place film series is a creature feature with a character-driven heart. The first film,… Read More ›
Trigger Warning: Kinds of Kindness is a darkly comic film that features murder, maiming, and sexual assault. Some elements, even handled with thought and care, may be troubling for some audiences. Growing up in the South you learn very quickly… Read More ›
Trigger warning: Themes that will be discussed in this review include pedophilia, rape, and incest. Masturbation and sex are also largely discussed and analyzed, so maybe just get the bath ready for when you’re done with this review and you… Read More ›
Angie Dickinson (Rio Bravo; Dressed to Kill) was famously beautiful, and a defining example of the “sexpot” archetype of Hollywood movie star in mid-century cinema. She was beautiful, and men loved looking at her butt and bust. That’s basically what… Read More ›
In Tótem (2023), newcomer Naíma Sentíes plays Sol, a little girl who we first meet taking her turn on a public toilet while her mother Lucía, played by Iazua Larios (Apocalypto; Sundown) makes her laugh by peeing in the sink…. Read More ›
Benoît Delhomme’s directorial debut Mothers’ Instinct (2024), a remake of Olivier Masset-Depasse’s French-language thriller of the same name (2018), feels like it was born out of a cinephile’s (or actor-phile’s) dreamboard. Oscar-winners Jessica Chastain (It: Chapter Two) and Anne Hathaway… Read More ›
Nearly 39 years after audiences were introduced to Miami, Florida, detectives Marcus Burnett and Mike Lowrey (Martin Lawrence and Will Smith; respectively) in the 1995 action comedy Bad Boys (1995), a fourth entry in the series landed in theaters: Bad… Read More ›
Martial arts fans know Yuen Biao from turns in Bruce Lee vehicles like Enter the Dragon (1973) and Game of Death (1978), as well as various appearances in Jackie Chan projects like Project A (1983) or My Lucky Stars (1985),… Read More ›
Art is chaos and chaos is life, therefore, art is a manifestation of the chaos of life. Our experiences, our views, everything that is “us” is transported into what we create. In some instances, what is absent from it is… Read More ›
In his lifetime, Lau Kar-leung’s worked as an actor (How Wong Fei-Hung Defeated Three Bullies with a Rod (1953); Golden Swallow (1968)), a stuntman (The Black Musketeer ‘F’ (1968); Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993)), a writer (Legendary Weapons of… Read More ›
It’s been quite a year for the franchise of horror films known as The Strangers as not only do we get this new home media release, we are also being treated to three new films in the franchise courtesy of… Read More ›
At first glance (or first trailer), Sean Wang’s directorial debut Dìdi (弟弟) (Chinese for “younger brother”) may seem like an empty rehash of other contemporary coming-of-age films like mid90s (2018) or Eighth Grade (2018), but to my surprise, there is… Read More ›
No matter what age you are, there’s never a bad time to pick up a new skill to help you engage with your emotions or guide someone else’s. By learning to regulate, each of us is more capable of dealing… Read More ›
There are few names in action that command respect in the way that Yuen Woo-ping does. A stuntman turned actor, writer, and director, Yuen Woo-ping is responsible for films like Jackie Chan’s Drunken Master (1979) and Donnie Yen’s Tiger Cage… Read More ›
Back in April, at the beginning of a particularly sleepy 12-hour shift manning the box office of the downtown Durham theatre in which I work, I opened A.M. Shine’s The Watchers on my Kindle, having impulsively downloaded it via the… Read More ›