Beverly Hills Cop Review
RATING: (4 STARS) I’m not sure there’s ever been a clearer case a film being carried by the charisma of its star than Beverly Hills Cop. This is Eddie Murphy’s film from beginning to end – something that sort of came about by accident. Originally conceived of and written as a dark and gritty Sylvester […]
The Forgaughtens: Vertical Limit (2000)
The Forgaughtens is a series of posts in which I revisit “forgotten” films that were released between the years 2000 and 2009, or the aughts. All films will be discussed in the context of their release, as well as their cultural relevance today, and at the end of each post, a film will be given […]
Top Gun Review
RATING: (3 STARS) I hardly remember it, but I actually watched and reviewed Top Gun almost ten years ago, when this website was in its infancy. After re-reading those 600+ scathing words, I realized I was both very right and very wrong. John at 21 thought Top Gun was cheesy and rote, and he hated […]
The Forgaughtens: Breach (2007)
The Forgaughtens is a series of posts in which I revisit “forgotten” films that were released between the years 2000 and 2009, or the aughts. All films will be discussed in the context of their release, as well as their cultural relevance today, and at the end of each post, a film will be given […]
The Hunger Review
RATING: (2.5 STARS) Get a load of the description for Tony Scott’s debut film, 1983’s The Hunger. From IMDb: “A love triangle develops between a beautiful yet dangerous vampire, her cellist companion, and a gerontologist.” Excuse me? A vampire, cellist, AND a gerontologist? They’re all here AND in the same eternal love triangle? Yes, and […]
The Forgaughtens: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
This is the first in a series of posts revisiting “forgotten” films that were released between the years 2000 and 2009, or the aughts. All films will be discussed in the context of their release, as well as their cultural relevance today, and at the end of each post, a film will be given a […]
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Review
RATING: (2 STARS) Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the fifth Star Wars film in as many years, arrived in theaters before Christmas more with a sense of exhausted obligation than breathless anticipation. It wasn’t just that we’ve been spending an inordinate amount of time in this world lately. The discourse around these films has […]
2020 Oscar Nominations Predictions
The 2020 Oscar nominations totally snuck up on me this year. That’s probably because I’m still behind on catching up with a bunch of likely 2020 Oscar nominees – not to mention the fact that I skipped the Golden Globes this year, but I’m happy to get these Oscar predictions in right under the wire. […]
The Best Movies of the Decade (2010-2019)
The 2010s were an incredible decade for cinema, and these are the 100 titles I’ll cherish the most.
The Hateful Eight Review
RATING: (4 STARS) There was some blood spilled at a Wyoming haberdashery some time after the Civil War. Well, a fictional Wyoming haberdashery, but still … boy, there was some blood. It’s the time and place of Quentin Tarantino’s eighth film, the very appropriately titled The Hateful Eight. The blood is nothing new in a […]
Searching Review
RATING: (3 STARS) There are a thousand Searching‘s in the history of both film and TNT, but none quite look and feel like the one made by director Aneesh Chaganty and starring John Cho. Some have said it’s the first film to really get the digital age. I don’t think that’s quite true. (If it […]
Bohemian Rhapsody Review
RATING: (2.5 STARS) Few bands in rock history are larger than life in the same way as Queen. Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor, and John Deacon incorporated elements of electronica, heavy metal, British pop, and opera into their catalog of songs, which is still play in stadiums, arenas, and karaoke bars and all over […]
The Best Films of 2018
This was a weird year—a great one for film, but a weird, confusing, exhausting one personally. I haven’t been all the way there when it comes to maintaining this site OR keeping up with the year’s best cinema. I’ve had prolific spurts broken up by life’s unpredictability, but I’ve seen enough that a post honoring […]
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs Review
RATING: (3.5 STARS) The latest film from Joel and Ethan Coen was originally meant to be an anthology series for Netflix, but somewhere between its conception and the Venice Film Festival this year, it became a two-hour, six-part anthology film. On the surface, this treatment will turn some viewers off, and “disjointed” and “uneven” will […]
Syriana Review
“The Beverly Hillbillies” called oil “black gold,” which sums things up quite well. It’s a commodity that people like Daniel Plainview from There Will Be Blood would sell his soul for back at the turn of the 19th century, and in the century between when that film is set and when Stephen Gaghan’s Syriana is both set and released, the […]
FYC 2018: Magnolia Pictures
This post includes mini-reviews of some of Magnolia Pictures’ 2018 releases with an eye on films they’re targeting for the 2019 Oscars and other end-of-year awards (including the OFCS awards which I’ll be voting on). If a film also has a full-length review, a link will be included. This will be updated through the end […]
