Rian Johnson works in the precise art of cinematic surprise. One of the great, under-appreciated joys of sitting in that dark room looking up at that bright screen is its ability to surprise us, and Johnson relishes the opportunity to leverage that power like a magician. It makes sense, then, that the notion of magic […]
Author: Jason McKiernan
Charlie’s Angels (2019)
It’s 2019, which means every week we must have a new IP reboot to release on 4,000 screens. This week’s submission is Charlie’s Angels, the latest attempt to kick-start a franchise based on the iconic late-’70s glam-a-rama detective series. Apparently “reboot” is not a word the film’s marketing team is willing to use, insisting that […]
The Report
The Report serves as proof that a film can achieve total moral clarity and still come off as such a sanctimonious screed that you want to check its sources when you leave the screening room. All the facts check out, obviously, since the source in question is the eponymous report – the U.S. Senate Committee […]
Pain and Glory
Pedro Almodovar’s films thrive on the imbalance between brash idiosyncrasy and eloquent introspection. The Spanish auteur is a master of carefully-controlled chaos, of purposefully overwrought melodrama presented against a brightly colored backdrop with a winking nod to the inherent zaniness, somehow kept earthbound by its melancholic thematic underpinnings. Almodovar’s canvas elevates from the screen, but […]
Black and Blue
Black and Blue is a racial polemic that could only be made in this modern world we live in – which is to say, it’s the kind of high-key potboiler that can jackhammer its way into the conversation in our toxic atmosphere. It’s an angry film, but not in the complex manner of a Spike […]
Zombieland: Double Tap
Of all the films to become subject to a superfluous sequel, Zombieland is one to approach with about equal parts excitement and apprehension. Why mess with perfection? The original 2009 film remains an untarnished gem, a lightning-in-a-bottle scenario that brought together the perfect mix of cast and creative talent to deliver something unique and special. […]
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
If Disney uses the Marvel movies as a gatekeeper of modern pop culture, I suppose the Maleficent franchise (since everything, apparently, must be a franchise) is the arbiter of humanity’s darkest ills. Whereas Marvel is the brightly colored happy machine, Maleficent is the bleak engine that chugs through cultural decay and human suffering. I suppose […]
Joker
It can only be viewed as some cruel cosmic swirl that in the immediate wake of Martin Scorsese’s dismissal of comic book movies as “not cinema,” but “theme parks,” the world has now been bestowed a film that leverages its iconic comic book inspiration to shamelessly imitate Scorsese’s late-‘70s/early-‘80s era of festering psyches in a […]
Hustlers
Based on a true story that went viral in a deep and revealing 2015 New York Magazine article, Hustlers takes a very specific story of former strippers building their own empire by poking holes in the golden parachutes of their wealthiest clientele and spins it into a rollicking swirl of female empowerment amid an interminable class struggle. […]
It Chapter Two
It Chapter Two can’t decide whether it wants to chase after Stephen King or Steven Spielberg. Sure, to a certain extent those two media monoliths occasionally cross paths at the intersection of serial adventure and emotional nostalgia. However, there’s a disconnect when the slick visual polish and swelling musical score is applied to painful emotional trauma […]
Ready or Not
They say there is no movie without the screenplay, and that’s absolutely true…but of course a film is made up of more elements than just the words on the page. Ready or Not is an incessant 90-minute reminder of that fact, since this cleverly conceived, sharply scripted, wonderfully acted film constantly undercuts its many strengths with […]
Luce
The name Luce is packed with polarizing implications. It means “light” in Italian, but it is also derived from a particular type of Pike fish that is known to be aggressive, vicious, and even cannibalistic in certain circumstances. It’s that sort of exacting duality that not only pervades and ultimately defines Luce, a film that […]
The Kitchen
Before The Kitchen even begins in earnest, a glaring disconnect becomes apparent. Befitting the film’s ‘70s-era setting and indie comic inspiration, the production company logos display as retro-funkified preambles to what we presume will be a film of similar attitude and flair. No such luck as the film fades in on a clean and crisp exterior […]
Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood
Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood is unmistakably a Quentin Tarantino film while also something of a conscious step away from the acute genre immersion of the filmmaker’s recent output. As opposed to emulating the styles and genres that QT so loves, the director’s latest centers his story on the industry where those genres […]
Stuber
The title Stuber is a…well, I suppose we could refer to it as a “witticism.” You see, the lead is named Stu, and he drives an Uber. And that profoundly weak word-smash joke serves as an apt label for a movie that works on a similarly limp creative level from beginning to end, coasting on the […]
Spider-Man: Far From Home
Just because we’re only a mere two months removed from the prevailing finality of Avengers: Endgame, where several disparate threads came together and signature characters met their end in what felt like a saga’s conclusion, doesn’t mean that the gears of the Marvel Cinematic Universe aren’t still turning. Spider-Man: Far From Home is the gateway to […]
Toy Story 4
As an audience, we have lived with the world and characters of Toy Story for going on 25 years now, enough time for the films to become a hallmark franchise in modern animation, a ubiquitous entity with characters who are household names, lines we quote, and moments that have made us shed an increasing amount […]
Men in Black: International
At this point, it should be crystal clear that originality is dead…or at best, kidnapped, abandoned at an undisclosed location, and left for dead. We have accepted that fate to a certain degree, because at least a decent swath of the IP-driven sequels and reboots that dominate multiplex screens and box-office charts understand what they […]
Late Night
There’s an inherent disconnect that runs through this film very plainly and definitively titled Late Night: it seems completely out of step with the rhythms of late night television. Scene after scene depicts late night monologues and interviews with an awkwardness that compounds as the film progresses, since apparently none of the enormous comedic talents […]
Aladdin (2019)
In this week’s example of No New Ideas Exist, Disney’s live-action remake of Aladdin is set to hit theaters, the latest in the magic mouse’s recent string of tricks, in which sacred cows are transformed into resurgent cash cows. One could (feebly) argue that these modern reboots update familiar classics for a new generation, but my […]