Review AD ASTRA. Back in the dark and distant past, when the word “independent” was first buzzily attached to American cinema on a widespread basis, there was a whole cable channel dedicated to it. IFC still exists, or so I am told, but in that creaky, bygone era, such upstarts had little to no budget […]
John J. Bennett
Posted inArts + Scene
Respect the Hustle
Review HUSTLERS is not a perfect movie. Of course not, such a thing does not exist. But it is a timely, important and overall very good one, and for that I guess I wish it could hit all the invisible, impossible marks required for greatness. Maybe I should be satisfied that it has managed significant […]
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The Champ
Review PEANUT BUTTER FALCON. What I tend to think of as healthy skepticism is probably more likely pathological or diagnosable on some sort of spectrum — not particularly healthy, if I’m being honest. And even after a delightful summer of traveling and the passing of time (seeing remarkably few movies, actually), I felt compelled to […]
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A Bloody Time Capsule
Review ONCE UPON A TIME … IN HOLLYWOOD. It’s been nearly four years since the release of Quentin Tarantino’s last movie The Hateful Eight (2015) and for many of us much of that time has played out like a chainsaw horror show set to a broken calliope loop; sort of like a Tarantino sequence, but charmless […]
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The Pretty Kitty has No Teeth
THE LION KING. By the time the original Lion King (1994) came out and caught fire, I had already started moving out of the animated feature lane (where I had only really spent a brief, though admittedly enjoyable, season). I was of just the right age that Pulp Fiction hit a lot harder that year, […]
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Vacations from Hell
Reviews SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME. Way back in 2017 (time proves elastic, seems to have no real meaning) I was somewhat taken aback by how much I enjoyed the most recent reboot/re-imagining/recycling of the Peter Parker/Spiderman character in Spiderman: Homecoming. Tom Holland seemed the right fit for the part: lithe, boyish, charming but uncertain of […]
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Yesterday is Sweet and Corny
Reviews YESTERDAY. I wouldn’t call Danny Boyle one of my favorite directors. He can tend toward narrative overreach, treacly sentimentality and visual excess. Still, he’s been showing up and doing the work for oh, 25 years now — at least in the world of features, since he was directing television for a while before the […]
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Men Out of Time
Reviews SHAFT. Isaac Hayes’ Theme from Shaft is a certified slapper (that’s what the kids are calling them, right?). Trouble is, so is John Shaft, at least as characterized by Richard Roundtree in the original movie from 1971. (I haven’t explored the quick succession of sequels, TV movies or the kinda-sorta sequel in 2000, starring […]
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Better than Maybe
Reviews ALWAYS BE MY MAYBE. It can be challenging for me to find an entry point with romantic comedies. Not that I dislike them (though to be honest I would most of the time select something else) but by and large the genre leans on the acceptance of a certain level of earnestness, a borderline […]
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Man of the Hour
Reviews JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3 – PARABELLUM. As we struggle for footing on the shifting sands of national leadership in constant cartoon crisis, a broader geopolitical landscape tilting toward global conflict and socioeconomic dissolution, and increasingly centralized popular entertainment defined by literal and figurative monsters, there is hope in John Wick. Everything else can continue […]
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She Should Run
Reviews LONG SHOT. My wife has harbored a celebrity crush on Seth Rogen since long before he started showing up in good suits; this confounds and troubles me. But to each her own. We can at least agree that Rogen is a writer and performer of substantial comedic gifts. For my part, well, I have […]
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Adrift in the Marvel Universe
Reviews AVENGERS: ENDGAME. Chemically unassisted sleep is, as a rule, challenging for me. It is the healthy, more reliable path by which to arrive at REM sleep (which everyone assures me is very important) but that sleeping state is frequently defined by vivid dreams of depravity and inadequacy. And the long stretches between filled with […]