The world is a different place than it was eight years ago, when Iron Man launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s unprecedented ascendance to critical and commercial acclaim. Superhero movies, once seen as a pariah on the medium, have become the main cash cow for major studios. And we’re way past the point of making movies […]
The world is a different place than it was eight years ago, when Iron Man launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s unprecedented ascendance to critical and commercial acclaim. Superhero movies, once seen as a pariah on the medium, have become the main cash cow for major studios. And we’re way past the point of making movies […]
It’s not just cultures that clash in Jeremy Saulnier’s Green Room, when a series of unfortunate events finds left-wing punk band The Ain’t Rights playing at a remote club for neo-Nazi skinheads. After bassist Amber (Alia Shawkat) accidentally witnesses the scene of a murder in the club’s green room—the place acts go before and after […]
If there’s one thing Richard Linklater knows, it’s spiritual sequels. His last film, the award-winning Boyhood, evoked much of the same feelings as his before series (Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Before Midnight) in its exploration of the inherent drama of something as simple as the passage of time. His rotoscoped mind trip Waking Life was […]
No matter how cynical you may be about the Disney brand, no matter how aware you are of the manipulation of your sentimentality, five minutes in, The Jungle Book will make you forget or not care as you find yourself becoming a believer. The recent spate—and forthcoming slate—of Disney live-action remakes of its own catalogue […]
You may have noticed that when many reviews compare a given movie to a video game, it’s rarely in a positive light. You may have also noticed that when this comparison is made, the reviewer has little, if any, experience with games, instead using the reference as a shorthand way of saying it’s all flash […]
As crippling as the fear of missing out may be on our ability to lead a normal, healthy life, perhaps the only thing worse is the regret of allowing yourself to become stuck in a rut of your own creation. This regret is given a playful yet poignant spin in Michael Showalter’s Hello, My Name […]
We’ve reached, it seems, a place in our relationship with comic book movies that the particulars of an individual plot matter less than the promise of future installments. The parts of Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice that work are those that are almost completely devoid of meaning to the movie around them, […]
As maligned and oversaturated in the market as they are, there’s a real value to the dystopian young adult sci-fi/fantasy tropes that target the tween demographic and are, ideally, familiar to adults who have not forgotten their own journey to emotional maturity. When the genre works, these novels and films can be useful primers on […]
After all the secrets lurking within 10 Cloverfield Lane have been revealed, after all its mysteries have come unraveled and you’re leaving the theater, that’s when the pure weirdness of what you have just witnessed hits you. This is a movie with two entirely different plots that run parallel but never fully intersect; first, there’s […]
Disney can be accused of many things—cultural appropriation, setting unreal expectations for children, censoring the brutality of old folk tales for mass audiences and thereby dulling their messages—but one thing Disney has mastered in recent years is maximizing the potential of its acquisitions. If you’re a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you have Disney’s […]