SEPTEMBER 5. Being of a certain age and something of a masochist, trigger warnings aren’t really my thing. Times being what they are, though, it only seems appropriate in this case to preface these remarks with the disclaimer that September 5 centers its narrative on one of the more broadly visible events in the ongoing […]
Broadway Cinema
Posted inArts + Scene
The MonkeyGets Weird
THE MONKEY. My close reading of Stephen King — now three quarters of a lifetime ago, was defined by morbid curiosity — a fascination with the seemingly endless, dark wellspring of the author’s imagination. The books were scary, sure, but they were also compelling for their weirdness and perversity and examination of Evil as an […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Nickel Boys‘ Powerful Perspective
NICKEL BOYS. There is a school of thought among filmmakers (Friedkin springs to mind, probably some of the French New Wavers), which holds that the camera must have a distinct point of view, that it cannot simply be an omniscient third-party observer. This flies in the face of some deeply held values among cineastes (read: […]
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Bloody Hearts
COMPANION. If you’re not vigilant, you can fall into a genre beat, as I seem to have with robot lady movies. Looks like I’ll be seeing them all, for better or worse, though Companion has landed far on the “better” side of the factory floor. Doll-like Iris (Sophie Thatcher) and Josh (Jack Quaid) meet oh-so-cute […]
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The Brutalist‘s Hard Edges
THE BRUTALIST. Although the nerd wires have been hotly humming for what seems like years, the arrival of Brady Corbet’s prospective magnum opus has felt decidedly anticlimactic here in the hinterland. Granted, most small towns lack a 70mm projector to do justice to the movie’s vaunted, arcane Vista Vision format, and the matinee crowd with […]
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PresenceMakes Itself Known
PRESENCE. I wouldn’t want to testify to it, but I would be willing to bet Steven Soderbergh has made more movies after falsely — but probably sincerely, at the time — announcing his retirement from that very pursuit than before. Just as I can’t say exactly when he issued that dire dictum, I would not […]
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Wolf Man‘s Incomplete Transformation
WOLF MAN. Almost five years ago now, the new plague looming as the presumptive worst thing that could happen in the next however-long — were we ever so innocent? — the release of writer-director Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man prompted me to both lament the rather dismal roll-out of Universal’s ostensible monster series reboot (The […]
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Den of Thieves 2 Drops Loot
DEN OF THIEVES 2: PANTERA. Even on those evenings when the seemingly endless expanse of streaming options is without appeal, a heist movie will reliably hit the spot. Variations on the plotting, execution and fallout of an elaborate theft all please in their turn: twisty confidence games for the puzzle minded; stylish capers with tuxedos […]
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Shock and Irish
In a fitting end to a discomfiting year, my holidays were canceled in lieu of a protracted illness absent even the minor satisfaction of a diagnosis, or that glorious, wished-for but likely apocryphal fatigue and rest we sometimes associate with influenza. No, this was an unrelenting, tasteless sapping of strength and enthusiasm that, as it […]
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Nosferatu‘s Rebirth
NOSFERATU. Steeped as we are in vampire lore, it can be challenging to sort the origins from the iterations, source from echo. It’s possible this is because the definitive, canonical material is exceedingly limited, vivid enough in its construction — close enough to the truth? Who am I to say? — and so arrestingly simple […]
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Deliberations
CONCLAVE. Having heretofore missed (or avoided) the latest from Edward Berger, a German director I had never heard of until his remake of All Quiet on the Western Front (2022) garnered massive critical and awards recognition, one might be inclined to pass over it all together. But then, in the spirit of the season, local […]
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Kraven Collapses, Carry-On Packs a Punch
KRAVEN THE HUNTER. Everybody makes mistakes, right? More than half the voters in this country did but that’s a topic for another conversation (screed, ugly cry, whichever one prefers). In this case, I made the optimistic error to set aside my widely disseminated opinions about Marvel movies (and yes, this is Marvel Studios, which is […]