Quantifying the significance of Avengers: Endgame is a lofty task. For some, the 22-film collection Marvel Studios crafted is an exercise in inconsequential extravagance which has shifted how studios make movies for the worse. These films have even been described… Read More ›
movie review
“Avengers: Endgame” is here and it’s the perfect end to the MCU’s Infinity Saga.
After an unprecedented 21-film lead-up, Avengers: Endgame, the culminating moment in what’s now been dubbed “The Infinity Saga,” is finally here. Audiences are coming to this film with a hope of closure after an emotionally devastating end to 2018’s Anthony… Read More ›
Light the fuse on “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” and get ready for the ride of the summer.
There are few cinematic franchises as consistent in delivering action and thrills as the Mission: Impossible franchise. While not as institutionalized as the James Bond: 007 series nor as gratuitous as the Fast & Furious franchise, the Mission: Impossible films… Read More ›
Curiouser and Curiouser, Vaughn Stein’s feature debut ‘Terminal’ is a candy-coated neon nightmare into the bowels of Wonderland.
Appearances can be deceiving. Always be the smartest person in the room. There’s no such thing as coincidence. These may be rote clichés, yet the failure to adhere to them will get you killed in Vaughn Stein’s feature debut, Terminal…. Read More ›
Netflix’s Martin Freeman-led zombie apocalypse feature ‘Cargo’ meanders narratively, reducing tension and emotion along the way.
For years now, zombie-related stories have been the rage on screens big and small. Whether telling the on-going story of a group of survivors (AMC’s The Walking Dead) or a one-shot of a father protecting his daughter (Train to Busan),… Read More ›
“Avengers: Infinity War” is the MCU Crossover Event We’ve Waited For.
In May 2008, a small, newly-formed, independent studio laid everything they had on a director whose greatest success was 2003’s Elf and an actor who was considered a washed-up has-been and was looking to make a comeback to tell the… Read More ›
Save your quarters, folks. You’re not going to want next on ‘Rampage’.
Adapting video games for film tends to underwhelm at the box office. It either takes a straight-forward premise and mucks it up (poor besmirched Super Mario Bros) or largely misunderstands what made the game fun (this includes you Street Fighter)…. Read More ›
Director James Demo Shines a Light on an Unsung Hero in ‘The Peacemaker’.
Documentarian James Demo picked a heck of a subject for his first full-feature subject: Padraig O’Malley. O’Malley is a brilliant man who has written several books on his experiences working with various world leaders, who gathered together a group of… Read More ›
You won’t sleep while ‘They Remain’.
With only one other directorial credit under his belt, writer/director Philip Gelatt helms the full feature adaptation of Laird Barron’s Lovecraftian short story —30– under the name They Remain. Tracking the complex relationship between two scientists working in a remote encampment,… Read More ›
Nerds rule on ‘Game Night’.
Everyone knows that one super-competitive person. The one who will bury your nose in their victory or flip over the table in defeat. Yet we love them because they’re family and it’s usually only during game night that their inner… Read More ›
Duncan Jones latest film ‘Mute’ is a perfect fit for Netflix’s Instant offerings.
Writer/director Duncan Jones broke onto the scene with the 2009 underground hit Moon, which tracked lunar engineer Sam Bell’s (Sam Rockwell) last days of his three-year mission as his solitary life finally begins to take its toll. Unfortunately, Jones’s follow-ups… Read More ›
Sociopaths are all the rage in ‘Tragedy Girls’.
Last October audiences were inundated by interesting films that drew them in a multitude of directions. Blade Runner 2049, The Florida Project, The Foreigner, and The Square all hit cinemas small and large, so it’d be hard to blame anyone… Read More ›
“12 Strong” – an imperfect, yet surprising biopic.
An alternate version of this review was published by CLTure on their site on January 19, 2018. September 11th, 2001 is a day that everyone in the U.S. remembers; a day of great pain and sorrow which inspired men and… Read More ›
“Saturday Church” is a quasi-musical journey of self-acceptance.
Audiences will quickly compare Saturday Church to Moonlight, the 2017 Best Picture Oscar winner which also tells a personal, character-driven story about a boy’s search for self at the intersection of sexual identity and race. While both excel at telling… Read More ›
Netflix’s ‘The Polka King’ is full of potential, but misses the beat.
Based-on-a-true-story biopics tend to fall into one of two categories: gritty or glossy. Weirdly, Netflix’s latest original feature The Polka King can’t decide which one it wants to be. Drawing from the documentary film The Man Who Would Be Polka… Read More ›
‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ is the spark of hope long-time fans have waited for.
Star Wars fans are a tricky bunch to please. They’re excited at the prospect of something new, something that delves further into the mythos of the Force, but when presented with something as half-baked as midichlorians, they riot. That was… Read More ›
Chilling and hopeful, director Martin McDonagh’s tragicomedy ‘Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri’ is one of the year’s best.
Writer/director Marin McDonagh is no stranger to tackling difficult or challenging material. His first feature, In Bruges, centered on a hitman having an existential crisis, while his second, Seven Psychopaths, focused on a screenwriter sucked into a world of gangsters… Read More ›
Director Taika Waititi’s ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ completely reinvigorates the superhero film.
Marvel Studio’s run of 17 films impressively introduces new characters, new worlds, and new adventures, all while building toward every Marvel nerd’s greatest dream: the Infinity War Saga. Thor (Chris Hemsworth), a central character in this film run, never seems… Read More ›
‘Kingsman: The Golden Circle’ brings the crazy action we love and little else.
2014’s Kingsman: The Secret Service took audiences by surprise when the spry spy satire proved to have more going on under the hood. As much as it made fun of the outlandish nature recent spy films – even acknowledging the… Read More ›
‘Menashe’ delivers one of the most unique films of the year.
Some stories take time to be told properly. They require cultivation and care. They require patience. In the case of Menashe, it took director Joshua Z Weinstein seven years to develop this a quiet, family-focused story centered on a widowed… Read More ›