22 Jump Street Review
RATING: (3 STARS) 22 Jump Street—the sequel to the hilarious film adaptation of the popular 1980s TV show 21 Jump Street—spits in the face of its very existence. Not unlike The LEGO Movie—which also came from the brains of this film’s directors, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller—it comes from greedy, vain, and uninspired origins, but […]
A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy Review
RATING: (3.5 STARS) With more than 40 titles on his resume, Woody Allen‘s career has rarely been static. He wouldn’t be working today if he made the same movie every year. While Woody Allen movies most certainly can be defined reflexively, his style is much more a matter of applying a precise tone to an […]
The LEGO Movie Review
RATING: (3.5 STARS) The very idea that something called The LEGO Movie was being made was enough to send shivers down the spine of anyone with good cinematic taste or a mind for originality. You know those critics who think they need to write to save cinema? The announcement of a feature-length LEGO movie was […]
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Review
RATING: (2 STARS) The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is many things—a good film not being one of them. But in between non-sensical, neon-soaked action sequences and cliche-ridden superhero movie romance are some surprisingly acceptable moments. Electro’s transformation from bullied to bully is hardly inspired. Ditto Peter Parker’s exploration of his parents’ past. But these oddly (if […]
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Embrace My Break From Blogging
As a lot of you probably know, I got married not too long ago—May 31 to be precise. It was a fantastic day, but the weeks leading up to it and since have been stress-filled and jam-packed. Blogging had to go on hold for a while, but I think it might have been for the […]
The Double (2014) Review
RATING: (2 STARS) Director Richard Ayoade’s The Double finds visual beauty in some objectively ugly places. The entire movie is bathed in harsh, obnoxious light, and a dusty, dirty film—”a patina of shit,” to quote the movie Michael Clayton—engulfs its characters, which supports the film’s themes that the working world is a suffocating, miserable place. […]
2014 Summer Movie Preview: Part 2
I can’t remember a summer—hell, I can’t remember any period of time—during which a crop of indies was so far and away better/more promising than its blockbuster counterpart. My 10 most-anticipated major Hollywood motion pictures list included no honorable mentions, and if I’m being honest, I’m not extremely excited about a few items I actually […]
2014 Summer Movie Preview: Part 1
You can’t go anywhere—on the internet, your television, or in person—without being inundated with The Amazing Spider-Man 2 ads, which tells this guy one thing: the movie is coming soon…though you could have said the same thing a year ago considering the over-saturation of this baby. I jest because I care—or at least I used […]
Tribeca 2014: ‘Manos Sucias’
I managed to catch up with the Spike Lee-produced Manos Sucias before the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival began. Once the credits started rolling, I thought that if I didn’t see a film as good as this, it’d still be a pretty successful festival. It’s equal parts an outstanding character piece and a wonderfully entertaining and […]
Tribeca 2014: ‘When the Garden Was Eden’
Over at Sound on Sight, I’ve written a review of the latest 30 for 30 documentary, When the Garden Was Eden, which premiered at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival. The film won’t premiere on ESPN for a little while, but it’s one you’ll want to look out for. Like last week’s Bad Boys, it’s a […]
Tribeca 2014: ‘Next Goal Wins’
My 2014 Tribeca Film Festival continues over at Sound on Sight with my review of the sports documentary Next Goal Wins, which profiles the American Samoan national soccer team, which went 30 years without a win in international play before this film’s cameras starting rolling. Check out my review of the film, which follows well-worn […]
Tribeca 2014: ‘All About Ann’
Over at Sound on Sight, my coverage of the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival began yesterday with a review of the charming political documentary All About Ann: Governor Richards of the Lone Star State. The film, which debuts a week from today on HBO, isn’t formally challenging, but Richards’ story is one absolutely worth telling. Check […]
Boxcar Bertha Review
RATING: (2.5 STARS) The winsome harmonica that opens Martin Scorsese’s second feature film, Boxcar Bertha, should be all the indication you need that it isn’t the kind of movie we’ve come to expect from the king of the gangster flick. Boxcar Bertha is Southern-fried pulp through and through. From the characters’ unmistakable drawl and the […]
The Paper Review
RATING: (2 STARS) It’s almost stunning how quickly Ron Howard’s The Paper collapses in on itself. Here’s a film that’s mostly fine, if a little familiar, for 80% of its running time. But my God, when it fails, it fails spectacularly. Almost any good will Howard and his all-star cast build is gone by the […]
Bringing Out the Dead Review
RATING: (2.5 STARS) Arguably one of Martin Scorsese‘s most forgotten (and forgettable) titles, 1999’s Bringing Out the Dead is a slippery eel of a film that eludes classification as defiantly as it does a traditional narrative trajectory. We never see our protagonist, Nicolas Cage‘s Frank Pierce, in a good place, so as far as the […]
