As Avengers: Infinity War finished and the theater lights came up I was already past anger and working my way towards acceptance of what I had just seen. There were parts of the movie that felt weak but overall it was absolutely at the level of average Marvel fare. The…
Sometimes there’s a strange serendipity that happens in culture and pop-culture. There are times when things line up, like when movies come out in perfectly matching pairs about such random things as asteroids, ants, volcanoes, androids, and mars. And then there are times when two things absolutely perfect for each…
Phantom Thread Originally this was going to be another double feature entitled Two World War Twos wherein I would review Darkest Hour and Dunkirk. I’ll be honest, I’m somewhat burnt out on World War II (#askaJew) and wasn’t particularly looking forward to two dour features to slog through on the subject. I had…
This is the category of Oscar nominated movies that co-star Timothée Chalamet. No? Sorry. This is the category of nominees that are oddly recent period pieces. Wrong again? Ugh. Okay, how about these are the coming of age stories for 2018? There we go. Call Me By Your Name (deserves Best…
The Post This is a weird one. It’s clearly the most Oscar-baitey movie one could imagine, nearly being the platonic ideal of awards begging. It’s also fiercely mediocre. The Post has a pedigree that should have a broad enough appeal, backed by gobs of talent, to be “good” at the…
This year has been surprisingly inclusive in certain traditionally stodgy Oscar categories. White men are in the minority for best director by 2:31, which is great! And genre movies have also done surprisingly well. For Best Picture we get horror and science fiction/fantasy representing, with Get Out and The Shape of…
I sat down to watch the De-Feminized Fan Edit with the intention of doing an overly serious critical take. I wanted to see if it would be possible to actually look at this project as a movie. Spoiler alert: it’s not At a mere 46 minutes, I still had to…
Content Warning: Prepare to feel old. Toy Story was first released in US theaters 22 years ago today. Are you okay? Take a minute to collect yourself after feeling a moment of your own mortality. Better? Good. So yeah, 22 years. It quickly became a part of children’s classics. The…
Some spoilers I’m going to buck the trend when I say this, but I wasn’t all that impressed with Thor: Ragnarok. That’s not to say it was terrible, and that’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy it. But I was simply not impressed with the movie. Going in, I…
There is a scene in Leon the Professional where Gary Oldman, in a piece of brilliant scenery chewing, demands that his henchmen bring everyone to help fight Leon. When the henchman asks what he means by everyone, Oldman contorts his face and releases a primal scream of “EVERYONE!” He…
Let’s talk about Guardians of the Galaxy 2. It has been getting generally good reviews, with the middling ones pointing out that it’s more of the same, and if that’s what you’re in the market for then good on ya. And this is generally true. It’s fun, quippy, bright, and…
So after 17 years they finally made a good standalone Wolverine film. It’s not that the story was complex and it’s not that it was a classic from the comics. The plot is incredibly simple (as long as you ignore the continuity with the rest of the X-Men franchise films)…
