Category: Review
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Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Would that the title were more accurate. The only ‘Fantastic Beast’ to be found in the film is Colin Farrell. Because damn; there exists a theoretical point in time where that man starts becoming less handsome. Or a time when he goes for a look so stupid it ruins him forever. Like when Ethan Hawke…
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Doc Appointment: My Scientology Movie, Francofonia
My Scientology Movie Is it possible not to love Louis Theroux? It’s easy from the audience, we got that distance, but his subjects though, they have to deal with that. He can be pretty invasive at times, probing, he can play these people something fierce. Then they turn around and forgive him, there something about…
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Some Cold Takes: A Goddamn Month Ago
I, Daniel Blake What is there to be said about I, Daniel Blake that hasn’t been already. It’s a film that defies being judged on conventional merits, so naked is its ambition as a political document. Thank God Ken Loach is such a good filmmaker, it makes it so much easier to write about the…
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Some Cold Takes October 14-20
The Girl on the Train Maybe there’s some enjoyment to be found in other people’s misery. You know, if your life is happy and easy and blessed enough there’s something to be gotten from others’ struggles. And if laughing at real people’s too much for you here’s some suffering we just made up. Not once…
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A Glass Darkly: Black Mirror, Season 3 Episode 2. Playtest
Until now episodes of Black Mirror have felt like they have had something to say about us. It ain’t always been profound, and its arguments haven’t always been well constructed, but it’s always tried. It’s like playtest doesn’t even try, it’s too much in love with itself to create a working story. Too much in…
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Some Cold Takes: Oct 7 – Oct 13
Swiss Army Man Okay, so I was always gonna love this one. I mean, Daniels work over the past few years has let us see these great visual stylists gradually adopt this unifying philosophy in their work, even their commercial stuff. It seemed like a feature was the obvious next step and here’s they’ve done…
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The Magnificent Seven
It’s time for this game again. This time our samurai are Sam Chisholm (Denzel Washington) tired, cynical, good-hearted; Goodnight Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke) sleazy, opportunistic, often-drunk; and Joshua Faraday (Chris Pratt) Chris Pratt. They’re joined by Jack Horne (Vincent D’Onofrio), Billy Rocks (Byung-hun Lee), Vasquez (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), and Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier) who all seem more…
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Hunt for the Wilderpeople
Taika Watiti may be the best filmmaker at the moment. Hunt for the Wilderpeople is certainly the best film. Focusing on thirteen year old orphan, juvenile delinquent, Ricky Baker (Julian Dennison) who runs from the system into the New Zealand bush. Accompanied by his reluctant caretaker Hector (Sam Neill) they soon find themselves the targets…
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Bridget Jones’s Baby
Bridget is back! And really, she ain’t changed all that much. Well, she’s older; but she’s still pretty much the same Bridget that we know and love. Which is kinda a great thing. The easy (lazy) approach to this material would be the horror of an aging Bridget, falling out of step in an ever…
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Blair Witch
I suppose the harshest thing you could say about Blair Witch is that it’s just another horror movie. The Blair Witch Project is one of the great films. The clumsily titled Blair Witch 2 – Book of Shadows is an ambitious mess. Blair Witch is a horror movie, not great, not awful, but as an…
A Grand Quiet 