Movie & TV Reviews, Lists, and Appreciation
Last year, I remarked on the uncommon number of smart and daring blockbusters that littered the cinematic landscape. Unfortunately for much of this year, I felt that most of the truly exceptional work was few and far between, particularly on the studio level. However, 2018 finished with quite a bang and I think that my … Continue reading Top 10 Movies of 2018
Teenage Miles Morales must contend with living up to his parents' expectations after getting admitted to an esteemed high school and with living up to the expectations of multiple Spider-heroes after getting bitten by a radioactive spider of his own. Into the Spider-Verse is the most visually creative and innovative movie since Edgar Wright's Scott … Continue reading Review: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Adam McKay's follow-up to his acclaimed drama about the 2008 financial crisis, The Big Short, takes aim at most liberals' personal Voldermort from this century's first decade: Vice President Dick Cheney. Vice is far from a traditional biopic and embraces the idiosyncrasies that made McKay's The Big Short such a stand-out. Unfortunately, a little style … Continue reading Review: Vice
James Wan unleashes an underwater fantasy of epic proportions with a film that is overlong, overloaded, unabashedly over-the-top, and filled with enough spectacle for five movies. It feels like the filmmakers were worried they may never get another chance at this and threw everything they had into the mix. The design and effects of this … Continue reading Review: Aquaman
After five outings with Michael Bay's hyper-active directed action, Travis Knight of 2016's excellent animated epic Kubo and the Two Strings brings a refreshing and necessary course correction in style, tone, and quality for the Transformers series. By scaling things waaaay back and focusing on the relationship between Hailee Steinfeld and her robot co-star, the film ends … Continue reading Review: Bumblebee
Barry Jenkins' follow-up to his Oscar-winning film Moonlight, is based off the James Baldwin novel of the same name, and finds the director further refining his style to create a piece that feels more like a free-form jazz composition or a long-form poem than a narrative. Exquisitely shot and wonderfully performed, If Beale Street Could … Continue reading Review: If Beale Street Could Talk
Filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos is about as close we get these days to a surrealist auteur in the Luis Bunuel-traditional sense with his 2015 "romantic comedy" The Lobster being a prime example of his idiosyncratic tendencies. So it's no surprise that his latest is as far from a stuffy period piece as one gets. The Favourite … Continue reading Review: The Favourite
Roma tells the story of a young housekeeper working for a middle-class family living in Mexico City during the 1970's. Roma isn't a traditional narrative but rather an unique experience of life that only a filmmaker like Alfonso Cuarón could create. Cuarón, also serving as his own cinematographer, crafts an endless stream of breathtaking images … Continue reading Review: Roma
Anchored by two terrific performances from Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali, Green Book excels as both a fun buddy road movie and an examination on racial divides that stretches from its 1960's setting to today. Mortensen displays an incredible knack for comic timing we never knew he had while Ali continues his streak of fascinating … Continue reading Review: Green Book
Steve McQueen's follow-up to his Best Picture-winning 12 Years a Slave is an impressively ambitious heist film that cares more about its characters and their world they inhabit than pulling off a flashy caper. Viola Davis leads a tremendous ensemble that includes Michelle Rodriguez, Colin Farrell, Robert Duvall, Daniel Kaluuya, and breakouts Elizabeth Debicki, Cynthia … Continue reading Review: Widows
