Reviews STAN & OLLIE. Chefs, even impassioned eaters, will often credit their grandmothers with the inspiration to pursue their passion. I only got to know my paternal grandmother; she wasn’t much of a cook. She was, however, a devout comedy acolyte eager to share the tenets of her beliefs. And so my younger brother and […]
John J. Bennett
Posted inArts + Scene
Survival Strategies
Reviews THE FAVOURITE. Lanthimos is a writer and director of comedies not for the faint of heart. He makes movies I find hilarious; others seem to come away despondent at their misanthropy and absurdity. Some might call what he does psychological horror. But to me, the critical distinction lies in his emphasis on humor as […]
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Causes Noble and Lost
Reviews REPLICAS. It’s been awhile since I’ve done this so I hope I can be forgiven for a degree of indelicacy, as the muscles may have atrophied: This movie sucks. And not in a guilty-pleasure way or in a so-bad-it’s-good way, or even as the basis of a drinking game. Rather, it consists of a […]
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Burning Secrets
Reviews In the gradual but somehow instantaneous acceleration of time, wherein it seems to expand and contract with no regard for our pleas and protestations, I have found my movie-nerdiness largely subsumed by what I’m told is “real life.” Going back to the VHS/DVD rental days, I would stage my weekends with a dozen hours […]
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To Look upon Monsters
Reviews First, a few words on Welcome to Marwen, which I have not seen and do not intend to. When trailers began to appear months ago, touting it as the most original movie of the year (I’m paraphrasing), I was decidedly non-plussed. And so when the forecasts came in estimating a 50-60 million dollar box […]
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Stand-out Movies of 2018
Reviews I’ve been burning down what little is left of 2018, using ethanol for an accelerant as is my wont. But I’ve also, after all this time, been watching The Great British Baking Show on Netflix. I resisted it for so long partially because its wildfire popularity and my sullen contrarianism seemed impossibly incompatible, and […]
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Sticking to the Story
The Mule Reviews THE MULE. Because he works so much — with no indication of flagging now — Clint Eastwood’s name comes up a lot in this column. I’ll spare everyone the dull recitation of his recent resume and simply say I’ve found his directorial output of the last decade equally confounding and revelatory. There […]
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Dark Horror, White Christmas
Reviews CAM. As excited and outspoken as I’ve been in recent years about contemporary horror movies, the genre’s groundswell of creativity and renewed excitement at the theatrical experience, this weekend gave me pause. Because as much as I genuinely believe that the horror genre, at least as defined by the best contemporary examples, may well […]
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Settling Debts
Reviews WIDOWS. When an artist arrives at a mastery of his or her form, the resulting work sometimes also highlights the masterful efforts of fellow contributors. This is truer in cinema than in most other media, of course, founded as it is on necessary collaboration. Some directors would deny this, perhaps arguing that their role […]
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Tragedy and Misanthropy
Reviews Sharp-eyed readers will likely note the absence of a review of Widows, Steve McQueen’s heist movie, which also appears, from this distance, to be something of a feminist call to arms. I say “appears” because the vagaries of real life prevented me from seeing the thing in time for my holiday-accelerated deadline. I’ll write […]
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An Unexpected Crime Thriller
Reviews CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME? is based on the autobiography by Lee Israel (Melissa McCarthy), a real-life biographer who began writing magazine profiles for the likes of Katharine Hepburn in the 1960s and made it to the New York Times bestseller list. It’s a squalid little gem of a film, it’s a tale of […]
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Sharper than Ever
Previews HALLOWEEN. John Carpenter remains one of the largely unsung heroes of 20th century American popular cinema, whose work is more influential than widely discussed and almost a genre unto itself. Starting with Dark Star (1976), Carpenter has been steadily building a catalog of hugely entertaining, weirdly stylish homages to/syntheses of classic monster movies, space […]