In another reality, modern audiences would be elbow-deep in the modern monsterverse Universal Pictures dubbed the “Dark Universe,” which kicked off with the release of 2017’s The Mummy. It was all in place with cast and concept, but the failed… Read More ›
Trigger Warning: Photosensitive viewers should take precautions before viewing as they are several brief sequences and two longer sequences involving flashing lights. “… to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable …” There’s a long tradition of using stories to… Read More ›
Trigger Warning: There are several sequences involving flashing lights (especially in the climax) which may be difficult for photosensitive viewers. One cannot deny the infectious nature of co-director John Musker and Ron Clements’s 2016 animated adventure Moana. Between the culturally-specific-yet-universal… Read More ›
We are gathered here, today, to acknowledge the end of the Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (SSU) with the home release of the J.C. Chandor-directed Kraven the Hunter (2024), the latest attempt of taking an absolute bastard villain and turning him into… Read More ›
By 2000, actor Russell Crowe had made a name for himself in the U.S. through work in The Quick and the Dead (1994), Virtuosity (1995), L.A. Confidential (1997), and The Insider (1999). It would be his turn as Maximus Decimus… Read More ›
People who live with disabilities are often made to feel invisible. In fact, society in general considers people with disabilities to be disposable, many times not wanting to even be reminded of their existence, when all people who live with… Read More ›
“I don’t understand you. But I love you.” These are key words said towards the climax of Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths, a somber slice-of-life film about two disparate sisters in a Black British family. Mike Leigh, a veteran indie darling… Read More ›
The ‘80s were a decade of decadence. Whimsical fashion, music, and media reigned pop culture. This was especially true with the films of the era. The year 1984 saw Warner Bros. release both Purple Rain, a semi-biographical concert film starring… Read More ›
Old Guy, directed by Simon West (Lara Croft: Tomb Raider; Con Air; Expendables 2) and written by Greg Johnson (The Last Son), at least piqued my interest as an entertaining, silly, action movie with a cast that includes Lucy Liu… Read More ›
No matter what the subject matter at hand is, throwing it into a family dynamic automatically adds an additional level of intensity, uncomfortableness, and familiarity. Usually, the best versions of these dynamics focus on some terrible tragedy past or present… Read More ›
When creating a film about the morality and ethics of journalism, centering a story around the Munich massacre of 1972 is an inspired choice. September 5 (2024), co-written and directed by Tim Fehlbaum (The Colony), is a film about an… Read More ›
As a child of the ‘90s, fantasy tales of romance have always felt like the coziest of blankets. Could it be that true love always won in the end? Or, having existed in a world filled with divorce, addiction, and… Read More ›
Back in 2003, I had the pleasure (much like the rest of New York) of getting to see a new musical called Wicked. In the mind of this then-13-year-old, seeing a story about a misunderstood witch from the land of… Read More ›
There’s this strange compulsion by many to respond to someone’s discomfort with “everyone has problems.” Whatever the intention, all it ever does is minimize what a person is feeling with the implication that “why should someone be feeling badly about… Read More ›
Trigger Warning: Like Father Like Son utilizes frequent use of unexpected fast cuts with visual imagery accompanied by white flashes which may disturb photosensitive viewers. What makes a killer a killer? For centuries, this question has been asked by plebs… Read More ›
It’s an important rite of passage for each generation to mourn the loss of the cultural norms and trends that defined its youth. Unfortunately, this mourning usually manifests as some iteration of the tone-deaf and demeaning phrase, “Kids today will… Read More ›
What is a soul worth? If one believes that it’s not a thing that can be manifested on its own, that comes to us naturally, or that it is a gift instilled in us by our creator, well, that’s three… Read More ›
Once something to be imagined in your favorite sci-fi tale, artificial intelligence (A.I.) is now being forced into everything from your smartphone to your toaster. Instead of being used to expand human consciousness through exploratory play like Star Trek: The… Read More ›
In 2021, director/co-writer Kelsey Egan brought audiences within the perimeter of a private utopia tucked away within a greater ecological threat that destroyed memories in her sci-fi thriller Glasshouse. Exploring the connection between memory and trauma, Egan challenged audiences to… Read More ›
When the trailers first dropped for director Ruben Fleischer’s Venom (2018), audiences got a taste of something truly exciting as it looked like Sony Pictures might take the Marvel Comics villain-turned-anti-hero and introduce him through a body horror-like science fiction… Read More ›