Apparently not all jobs outsourced by James Cameron are created equal. Earlier this year, we saw Alita: Battle Angel, his collaboration with director Robert Rodriguez. The hands-on approach of both filmmakers seemed to bring out the best in each, with Rodriguez’s slick camera work and knack for creating chemistry between characters enhancing Cameron’s boundary-pushing special […]
The good news is that you’ll love writer/director/actor Taika Waititi. The bad news is there’s no charming your way out of a misfire as big as Jojo Rabbit. You can see that this is an “anti-hate satire,” with it plastered over all of the promotional materials like it’s the official subtitle, but it lacks the […]
Every year, the Virginia Film Festival brings the best in films past, present, and future. Critics and writers appearing at VAFF include Jamelle Bouie of The New York Times and CBS, Soraya McDonald of The Undefeated, Alonso Duralde of “The Wrap,” and “Linoleum Knife,” and Alissa Wilkinson of Vox, Rolling Stone, RogerEbert.com, and others. Put […]
The progression from animated family film to straight-to-Netflix series is perfectly natural. Kids want to spend more time with the characters, studios want to keep the property in the public eye between installments, and parents just want something that isn’t totally mind-numbing for them and their children. The drop off in scale and quality is […]
If Todd Phillips’ Joker had been better, or worse, then the pre-release controversy might have been worth something. If it defied the odds as a prestige work, or if it were a sloppy misfire, the incessant discourse might have led somewhere interesting. But a technically slick yet thematically shallow production keeps us in exactly the […]
When two similar movies are made in close proximity, they are often described as “twin films.” Think Armageddon and Deep Impact, The Prestige and The Illusionist, and now Smallfoot and Abominable. The worst thing they can do is give you déjà vu, like you’ve seen this story before. The best is blaze a totally different […]
Meditative, introspective, and gorgeously executed, Ad Astra is an art film in a blockbuster’s clothing. Behind the hard science fiction, the predictions of how the next generation of space travel will look and operate, and even moon shootouts and space chimp battles are deep ruminations on anger, masculinity, and transference of toxicity from one generation […]
One of the most refreshing things a film can do is focus on characters who need no introduction but have never been in the spotlight themselves. Strip clubs and strippers are everywhere in popular culture, but it’s hard to think of any film or series that fully appreciates and understands their work as deeply as […]
The problem that has always plagued adaptations of Stephen King’s IT is that the two halves—kids and grown-ups—are not equally interesting. Nostalgic coming-of-age tales of scary monsters and friendship are inherently more engaging than 40-somethings with bad memories. Chapter One put us in the shoes of teens navigating the treacherous waters of growing up while […]
Luce is many things: a coming of age story, a family drama, a biting social commentary. And though it uses many techniques and tropes from the thriller genre that may seem familiar, that is one thing it is not. Just as the indie drama Krisha was designed to feel like a horror film in order […]