The stories of Wes Anderson’s films can be best compared to Russian nesting dolls. Throughout their running time, the layers and deeper meanings begin to present themselves. Films like Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), Moonrise Kingdom (2012), The Grand Budapest Hotel… Read More ›
As with every generation, there is a separation in what’s considered normal or acceptable as one comes up into adulthood. Growing up, there was a sense that homes should be filled with photographs of posed family and pieces of art,… Read More ›
“When you can do the things that I can, but you don’t, and then the bad things happen? They happen because of you.” – Peter Parker, Captain America: Civil War (2016) Since 2016, actor Tom Holland as had the unenviable… Read More ›
Few directors can have a small body of work and yet feel so pervasive, so integral, so inspiring as writer/director Guillermo del Toro. When he’s not writing or directing one of his own projects, he’s producing or raving about someone… Read More ›
Wes Anderson’s 10th film is about as Wes Andersony as it gets. To this point in his career, I’d argue that it’s also the *most* Wes Andersony, for good or for bad. This has delighted his fans (many of whom… Read More ›
“Is he man or beast?” barks Willem Dafoe’s Clem, the man who runs the oddities exhibit at a carnival, enticing people to look down upon an enclosure where a figure is hidden. These people have come to see something horrendous… Read More ›
There’s been a whole hullabaloo on social media regarding The French Dispatch, with disgruntled Twitter account owners accusing Wes Anderson of relying on the laurels of being Wes Anderson, and like…yeah dude…what do you expect? There’s this expectation in the… Read More ›
If a physical copy weren’t in my hand, it would be hard to believe that director Zack Snyder’s original vision for Justice League was anything more than rumor mixed with fan desire. After a horrific personal situation resulted in the… Read More ›
There have been stories of gods and monsters for as long as there have been oral traditions in communities — stories of creation, stories of destruction, which warn of great evil or encourage altruism. Some of these stories turned into… Read More ›
According to actor/writer/director Edward Norton, his relationship with Jonathan Lethem’s 1999 novel Motherless Brooklyn began before the book hit shelves. As he explains in the featurette “Making-Of: Edward Norton’s Methodical Process,” he was tipped off by a friend about the… Read More ›
The cinematic adaptation of Jonathan Lethem’s book Motherless Brooklyn by Edward Norton (Keeping the Faith) possesses all the hallmarks of a great noir: mystery, a dame in trouble, and a gumshoe in over his head. When you add in a… Read More ›
Being from Durham, North Carolina, I have seen a lot of changes happen in my city over the last few years. Durham kept a large, mostly black, working-class population due to the employment of so many citizens at the tobacco… Read More ›
The Oscars are coming up, so of course Darryl and I have opinions on the nominees. Over the course of six mini-episodes, the two of us dig into Best Supporting Actor/Actress, Lead Actor/Actress, Director, and Best Picture. As each new… Read More ›
2016’s Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice offered global audiences a first glimpse of Jason Momoa as Arthur Curry, known in the DC Comics world as Aquaman, swimming away from an intrusive underwater camera in a brief mid-film clip. Later,… Read More ›
Many documentaries seek to enrich the lives of an audience through an exploration of a time, an area, or even an individual. These are the expectations set up by traditional documentaries seen the world over and these are the expectations… Read More ›
This review was originally published for CLTure on their site on February 18th, 2017. Famed director Zhang Yimou (Hero/House of Flying Daggers) brings the flourish and beauty of Chinese cinema stateside with The Great Wall, a tight action-packed fantasy adventure starring Matt Damon, Tian Jing,… Read More ›