THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER. As I lay in the emergency room on July 3 — with a non-explosives-related digital wound, as I abhor cliché — writing about a Marvel movie was perhaps the furthest thing from my mind. Realistically, I was probably busy scrambling for hand-trauma jokes (Will I ever play the piano? What about […]
John J. Bennett
Posted inArts + Scene
The Lives of Women
It would seem I’ve chosen the wrong decade to quit drinking. With apologies to Samuel Clemens, it’s easy: I’ve done it dozens of times. For whatever reason, though, I selected the summer of 2022 to take a longer, less-defined hiatus from one of my longest-standing hobbies. These weren’t conscious factors in the decision, but it […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Better Than the Real Thing
Not for nothing, I haven’t been to the theater in a while. It seemed like springtime had us on a roll, both in terms of plague abatement and promising new movie releases. But the complex network of circumstance — viral, political, artistic and financial — that lately serves to harsh the collective mellow has now […]
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Gamers
HUSTLE. As a foolishly sentimental person of a certain age, I will likely never give up on Adam Sandler. He rose to prominence at a time when Saturday Night Live was an illicit pleasure, at least in my house, something to be enjoyed as much for the show itself as for the accomplishment of sneaking […]
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With the Boys
MEN. I first became aware of Alex Garland as a screenwriter in 2002, when 28 Days Later was released. Directed by Danny Boyle, that picture — not to be confused with the almost contemporaneous Sandra Bullock rehab comedy with a very similar title — delivered a new, kinetic perspective on the zombie/rage virus genre (yes, […]
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The Northman’s Ferocious Power
THE NORTHMAN. In hindsight, I should probably have been kinder to The Witch (2015). At the time, I damned it with faint praise, basically comparing it unfavorably to some of the cheekier arthouse horror movies of the moment. As I think I said then, this was due to shortsightedness on my part but also to […]
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Game Changers
The editor suggested, due to some fairly horrific recent events, that I keep this week’s selection light, perhaps write a column about comfort viewing. I may have met her halfway. There are certainly times when I seek out broad comedy to soothe my beleaguered psyche. As previously (repeatedly) mentioned, my wife and I spent the […]
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Meta Adventures
THE BUBBLE. It was almost — only? — two years ago that The King of Staten Island, Judd Apatow’s last feature, was released. It felt noteworthy because Apatow’s comedies are events (albeit minor ones for most) in and of themselves and because it was a starring role for Pete Davidson, the anointed one. But it […]
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Throwback Thrills
X. I’ve been a fan of Ti West’s work for longer than I care to remember. Sometime more a decade ago, I heard him interviewed and was intrigued enough by what I heard to explore his work. Back then, due to his relatively brief CV, the ubiquity of DVD rental and the lost, sought-after abundance […]
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Robot Love and Human Folly
AFTER YANG. Envisioning the future is a dicey prospect in the best of times; lately it seems borderline pointless/delusional. Global dissolution aside, committing to an imagined version of progress or the lack thereof is a risky artistic decision, and one that can (and usually will) be revealed as foolish, wrongheaded or stupid in short order. […]
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The Batman Back in the Mud
THE BATMAN. Despite the time, space and vitriol I’ve maybe/probably/definitely wasted bloviating about the state of movies in the shadow of the comic book-adaptation monolith, I’ve been a Batman shill for longer than I’d like to admit. Being of a certain age, I saw Tim Burton’s Batman (1989) in the theater with my parents and younger […]
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CODA‘s Music
CODA. Although my editor made not-so-veiled threats regarding The Sky is Everywhere — order must be maintained, after all — none were required to compel me to watch this, another emotionally charged exploration of teenage identity. Rather, it was the strange pressure of the impending Academy Awards which, as it does almost every year, makes […]