Approach is everything when it comes to movies. To paraphrase Ebert, it doesn’t matter what the movie is about, it matters how it is about it. Tone, character, pacing, all of it can change your opinion on a genre or style of film that you’d ordinarily blow off in a New York minute. For example, I’m not too into romantic comedies. It has nothing to do with my being a dude. Rather, the rom-com genre is one where I’m so acutely aware of the tropes and conventions, I often let out a “meh” without thinking twice. And yet, Long Shot, the 2019 rom-com in which schlubby journalist Seth Rogen... Read More

You don’t get to look like me without being a foodie. I’ve joked with my wife that she married a man who will never have rippling muscles or six-pack abs. It’s all because I love food. The preparation of it, the eating of it, and the reminiscing of it. There’s something special about it, and the right meal eaten at the right place with the right people can be nothing short of magical. I’m a foodie, but I also know that the foodie scene sometimes gets to be…well, a bit much. At a local pizza place in Boulder a few years ago, our waiter regaled us with the quality of the ingredients.... Read More

In 1995, I saw The Usual Suspects in Denver. I was 20, a callow young punk, not even old enough to drink legally. Like most people that age, I was dumb as hell, not even smart enough to know how little I knew. However, walking out of The Usual Suspects, there were two things I knew for sure. It was an instantly iconic film and the guy who made it was one to watch. That guy was Bryan Singer, and for a while there, he made some genuinely interesting stuff. The Nazi-in-suburbia thriller Apt Pupil. Tom Cruise as a heroic German in Valkyrie. The Man of Steel as a creepy stalker in Superman... Read More

Most films have flaws, that’s a given. But there are a few of them out there that are perfect. So much so that you can’t imagine cutting a scene, or removing a performance. They tell their story correctly, with intelligence, style and honesty.  Goodfellas is perfect. No Country For Old Men is perfect. The Silence Of The Lambs is perfect. The Princess Bride is perfect. Mad Max: Fury Road is perfect. By all rights, it shouldn’t be. It’s the fourth film in a franchise, which is often the point where the filmmakers desperately hope somebody, anybody, sees it before... Read More