I don’t often do dual reviews. The main reason for that is, well, focus. If I’m going to write about a movie, I want to drill down into it a little. It’s tough to do that if you have two films that have nothing to do with each other by subject or theme. Somewhere out […]

Is nuance dead in America? I don’t think so, but it is apparently very, very sleepy. Everything is binary these days. The enchiladas you ate were either a gastronomical miracle straight from Saint Martha* or a meal of such blistering incompetence that it will summon Gordon Ramsay to wreak culinary vengeance. Same goes for movies, […]

If you watch enough movies, a few things start to happen. One of those is that you begin to recognize a filmmaker’s voice. You’ll notice the cheery pessimism of David Fincher, the slick wistfulness of Steven Spielberg, the aggressive goth-osity of Tim Burton, and the puckish rage of Spike Lee. It’s true that some directors […]

There’s a moment late in the new indie drama Mickey Hardaway where we hear repeated audio from newscasts. Each anchor uses nearly the same phrasing when they say, “a Black male, mid-twenties, with a gun.” That phrasing conjures a mental picture. That mental picture is the first link in a chain, one that ends in […]

A little research tells me a chunk of biker gangs remain involved with the drug trade, weapons dealing, and other criminal activity. Hasn’t it always been that way? Haven’t bikers always been the modern day equivalent of the Mongol hordes, sweeping across the American landscapes like leather-clad locusts? They’re nothing but a bunch of criminals, […]

Like the MCU, Pixar has been in a bit of a tough spot as of late. Initially, they were arguably the gold standard in family entertainment, perhaps even more so than Disney Animation itself. Whether you saw Toy Story, Ratatouille, The Incredibles, Up, or Inside Out, you were virtually guaranteed a film that was clever, […]

You can’t understand how massive Will Smith was, not unless you were there. These days, he’s still ubiquitous. My son, Liam, knows who he is, as do his friends. Will Smith is, to his generation, the same way that Frank Sinatra was to mine. He’s a celebrity, only one that isn’t a cultural driver the […]

When is a hit not a hit? When it’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. We’ll get into the review specifics in a moment, but before we do, please allow me to paint you a picture. I didn’t see this film at a critic’s screening, surrounded by a bunch of egghead movie nerds like me. Like […]

If you ever want to really check your humility level, try writing about a subject you’re ignorant on. I like to think of myself as a relatively intelligent person. Want to talk about politics or current events? I can handle myself okay. Literature more your thing? Cool, we can talk about books and/or writing.*  Movies […]

When you boil it down, there are two kinds of movies. The first are studio movies. These range from the (formerly) unstoppable juggernaut of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to dramas directed by Clint Eastwood. They come from a major studio* such as Disney, Universal, and others. Whether or not these films are actually good, they’re […]