Trigger warning: This review and the film itself deal extensively with suicidal ideation. If you’re like me and need a regular blast of positivity to get through the horrors of life in 2025, do yourself a favor and subscribe to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Pump Club email newsletter.* Monday through Friday, Arnold and his team offer fitness […]

I’ve said for as long as I can remember that there’s no such thing as a bad year for movies. To be sure, there are some years, such as 1999, that are positively crammed full of classics. To be also sure, there are other years where the number of quality films is…uh…a little reduced! But […]

It took a minute for me to realize that Channing Tatum is, for the most part, awesome. I have to admit that it took a minute. When he showed up initially in the mid-2000s, I figured he was standard issue beefcake, some guy manufactured in a lab deep underneath the Hollywood sign, destined to appear […]

As I write this, there are two dogs in my house. The first is Gambol, our elder statesman. He’s friendly in a reserved way, as if a traditional Republican from the Northeast were reincarnated into the body of a canine. If you were to walk into the house, Gambol would almost certainly let you pet […]

With a little bit of luck, we’ll all be old. That’s just as true for me as anyone else. I’m not so much pushing fifty as I pushed over fifty. I don’t really feel too different than I did five years ago, yet I can’t help but notice slightly more white in my beard, and […]

One of the most memorable first lines in the history of film can be found in The Godfather. It’s spoken by the coroner, Bonasera, who tells Don Vito Corleone, “I believe in America.” Bonasera talks of the brutal assault against his daughter. He explains to the Don that he went to the police and reported […]

On a fundamental level, I don’t understand art. Movies, as you unfortunately know, are something I can talk about all day. I can feel deep in my bones when they work, and my cringe factor will rocket off the charts when they don’t. Time, experience, and passion took me to a place where I understand […]

One of my most admired humans is Rick Steves. If you’re not familiar with him, he’s the Seattle-based creator of a travel empire. Since the late 1970s, he’s written guidebooks on affordable and thoughtful European travel. Since the early 1990s, he’s produced numerous television series that mostly focus on where, how, and why one should […]

When you break it down, there are ultimately two categories of film director – journeymen and artists. As you might have guessed, there’s a vast chasm of difference between them. With the first batch, these are filmmakers like Doug Liman, Ron Howard, Don Siegel, Martin Campbell, and Ernest Dickerson. Instead of a particular stylistic flourish […]

Do you love movies?  Wait a minute, let’s break down what I mean by that. By “movies,” I don’t just mean disposable entertainment you can idly watch while folding laundry. I mean a cinematic experience that grabs you, forces your ass to focus, says Pay attention to me. By “love,” I don’t mean a fun […]