REVIEWS I certainly didn’t plan for it but I wasn’t alone: Apparently something in the collective consciousness motivated great droves of us in the same direction. Maybe the denial/resignation I observed setting in six months ago has finally become as contagious as the virus that was and is its subject. Vaccination and the promise of […]
John J. Bennett
Posted inArts + Scene
The Poverty of Excess
REVIEWS It has been, oh, 14 and a half months since I last went to the movies. The opportunity has arisen, recently, with the advent of COVID-19 vaccines and, before that, a collective denial/resignation/relaxing of the guard due to fatigue, frustration and, in some cases, willful ignorance. But because of the embarrassment of riches brought […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Adaptation and Survival
REVIEWS THOSE WHO WISH ME DEAD. I put a lot of stock in Taylor Sheridan. His screenplays for Sicario (2015), Hell or High Water (2016) and Wind River (2017) — the last of which was his directorial debut — describe a reverence, healthy fear and morbid fascination with the New American West. His work encompasses […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Stowaway’s Taut Drama
I didn’t watch the Academy Awards broadcast this year; from what I’ve read, you likely didn’t either. That I say I don’t care about the Oscars, seeing them as increasingly culturally insignificant and out of step, and yet feel compelled to constantly mention them in this context is something I wrestle with. In fact, I […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Anachronistic Fun
As we (mostly) take collective faltering steps toward the precarious and ever-eroding notion of “normal,” with the world changing and remaining the same, and things making less sense the more we think about them, I’ve found myself retreating, for a couple of evenings, to some semblance of what was. It induced a not-unpleasant disconnectedness shot […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Funny Running into You
THUNDER FORCE. Melissa McCarthy had already established a significant CV as a character by the time I took notice. That was 2011, the movie was Bridesmaids (of course) and I doubt I was the sole latecomer to her fan club. She made an indelible impression as the irrepressible, sweetly unhinged Megan, standing out in a […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Rumbles, Riffs and Riders
GODZILLA VS. KONG. On the rarest of occasions, one receives an unexpected gift; something one would not have chosen for oneself, or even considered as a potential source of joy. Such, for me, was the arrival of Godzilla vs. Kong. We all knew it was coming and most were ready to receive it with adulation […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Shooting His Shot
BOOGIE. Eddie Huang remains always on his hustle. The child of a sometimes troubled but ultimately fruitful marriage of immigrant entrepreneurs (Chinese by way of Taiwan), he grew up in the restaurant business, went on to a successful academic career, became a lawyer, lost that gig, started a clothing line, allegedly sold weed, opened a […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Sound of Metal and the Weight of Oscars
I’ve dedicated a fair plot of real estate in this column to the idea that movie awards (and award shows) do not matter. For what it’s worth, I’ve wasted even more time thinking than writing about it. But, as I’ve prattled, American culture, the universe at-large and the sonofabitching third decade of the 21st century […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Battle Cries
CHERRY. Despite seeming to mostly keep himself to himself, Nico Walker is a pretty prominent media figure these days. He’s been profiled, albeit somewhat superficially, by some fancy outlets, married a poet with a splashy lifestyle (Rachel Rabbit White) and has had his first novel adapted into a big, noisy movie by some Avengers guys […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Lost in Transit
COMING 2 AMERICA. It probably seems a little silly — and probably is, actually — but I wanted and still want this movie to be great, important even. This won’t be the first time but it says something of my age/generation to say Coming to America (1988) was one of the formative pop-cultural experiences of […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Minari Flourishes Out of Season
MINARI. There was a time, in the ever receding past, when I was fascinated by and cared about awards, or at least the Academy Awards. I’ve since come to see them as a self-congratulatory popularity contest that frequently attempts to right the cultural and economic wrongs of its own capitalist enterprise with too-little and too-late […]