WOMAN OF THE HOUR. In the “real,” nightmare world of late 20th century America, when serial killers seemed to lurk inside every tricked-out van and basement apartment in America, there was a television show predicated on the importance of the male gaze and horrifically distorted sexual dynamics and expectations (really, it was only one of […]
Screens
Posted inArts + Scene
The Making of Monsters
SATURDAY NIGHT. Although I have drifted through long, possibly significant eras of the show without giving it so much as a look, Saturday Night Live has been an influence and a cultural barometer, even before I got brave or dumb enough to sneak out of my room to watch it. Now in its fifth decade, […]
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Alone Together
HIS THREE DAUGHTERS. Deep into the third act of writer-director Azazel Jacobs’ (French Exit, 2020; Terri, 2011) latest, a dying man’s thoughts on obituary are paraphrased by one of his titular daughters. To further paraphrase, a description of the departed’s life can only fail to convey the totality of that life and its end; only […]
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Journeys of the Self
MEGALOPOLIS. For a person who (still) uses Apocalypse Now (1979) to self-soothe, a new Francis Ford Coppola movie is kind of a big deal, no argument. The excitement of that prospect was and is tempered by several factors, though. First, there is the notion that the filmmaker in question has been busier with his wine […]
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Never Let Go‘s Tenuous Bonds
NEVER LET GO. Let me begin by opening myself up to scorn and ridicule: We need to give Halle Berry another crack at the role of Catwoman. Her action work in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019) and Bruised (2020), in which her fighting chops (in her damn 50s) were equaled by her portrayal of […]
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Speak No Evil‘s Toxic Traits
SPEAK NO EVIL. It was only after seeing this English language remake — a softer version than the 2022 original Danish film of the same title, I’m told — that I realized the Danes must be a good deal tougher and take their drama bleaker than I do (“Hell is Visiting Other People,” Sept. 22, […]
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Rebel Ridge Lands a Punch
REBEL RIDGE. It may seem silly or outmoded to continue to subscribe to the auteur theory. It is, after all, a 70-ish-year-old French construct whereby a bunch of critics who wanted to make movies could attribute the success or failure of a project to a person’s singular vision; seems almost quaintly mid-century, almost without the […]
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Afraid is More Artificial Than Intelligent
AFRAID. The previews for Afraid held a little campy promise — the premise of a family cowering before its power-drunk Alexa has plenty of scary/funny potential — especially under the Blumhouse imprint. In our current climate, it shouldn’t be terribly hard to sketch out an AI villain. If the Google Gemini instructions for adding glue […]
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Red Flags and Surprises
STRANGE DARLING. That a movie like this (not that I can say I’ve ever seen one) should exist, much less be available in theaters in a remote little outpost like ours, speaks to something promising in the business of American movies. Pardon the optimism. I’ve joined my voice to the chorus of lamentation about the […]
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Back On Board with Alien: Romulus
ALIEN: ROMULUS. Large as aliens (lower case) continue to loom over our collective curiosity and paranoia — even governments are getting in on the party now — these visitors, real or imagined, tend toward one of two primary species (genera?) suggested by movies and literature. There are, of course, the little gray ones of Whitley […]
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New Movies of a Bygone Era
CUCKOO. Even from its opening frames, this struck me as the kind of living relic that will (or should) reward some horror nerd, years from now, who discovers it without foreknowledge or judgment. Which is an admittedly reductive way to address a movie that in real time yields its own rewards, conflicting though they might […]
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Trap Can’t Find a Way Out
TRAP. The conversation I have been having about M. Night Shyamalan movies for a decade begins with recent disappointment, acknowledges The Sixth Sense (1999), maybe Signs (2002) or Unbreakable (2000), and lands with fingers crossed for the next one. Just as I enjoy being tricked at a magic show, I’m happy to gasp at a […]