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People Were Going to Die!

For me, this is the single line that makes James Gunn’s Superman work. Corenswet’s delivery – not angry, but exasperated, sounding almost as if he could have cried it rather than yelled it – tells you everything you need to know about this version of the world’s first* superhero.  Because when dealing with Superman, who represents not just supernatural strength but supernatural goodness, who can…

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The Vampire is U.S.

~Spoilers for Sinners~ While every group of people that calls America home has contributed to “American Culture” – the Pilgrim’s infamous “work ethic,” Italians innovating on traditional flatbreads to invent the pizza, Jewish comedians and entertainers codifying film & television sensibilities – none have had the indelible influence on the American DNA as Black people. And while the effect Black…

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MICKEY 17 deserves better. We all do.

~Full plot spoilers for Mickey 17~ Sci-fi can often be a window into an alternate universe. It’s rarer for it to feel like it came from one itself.  But Bong Joon Ho’s Mickey 17 was clearly made for a universe where Trump lost the 2024 presidential election. And while I admire the optimism that led him to invest his time, effort, and millions of dollars towards creating a piece of art for that…

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Nosferatu celebrates 100 years of horror cinema

When director F. W. Murnau and his crew made the original Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror in 1921, the potential of film as a medium was still largely unexplored. This was before sound, before color, before most actors had been trained to perform for the screen. Lev Kuleshov was still experimenting to understand how audiences interpret cuts, and Sergei Eisenstein – who would eventually codify…

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We are the prison

Scratching the surface of the American carceral state could be enough to drive most people to despair, and it is the remit of art to make tolerable the medicine of history. Nickel Boys, directed by RaMell Ross, adapting Colson Whitehead’s novel of the same name – is the latest entry in this genre of American cinema, which includes movies like The Defiant Ones (which Ross directly quotes) and Cool…

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Is the artist lonely?

I recently watched two animated movies that are each shorter than feature length, so I’m gonna contort them to be in conversation. Enjoy. … Rent ME on vimeo Besides the music attributions, the only name in the credits to ME is Don Hertzfeldt. This is not unusual for the animator, who has worked with voice actors and compositors in the past, but is known for his independent – in the strictest…

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The Substantiation

~Spoilers for The Substance & Oshi no Ko~ It’s been about a week since I saw it, but I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance – a film I, to be completely candid, didn’t particularly like. I like a lot about The Substance. Co-leads Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley are both fantastic, with the former going from raw and vulnerable in the first act to whole ham…

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Strange Darling revives 70s horror

As with American filmmaking overall, the 70s saw a resurrection of the horror genre. Movies like The Exorcist, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Halloween, Dawn of the Dead, and Alien, among so many others expanded the purview of the genre. Beyond introducing new designs and subgenres to the wider audiences these films attracted, they also proved that horror could be undeniably about things in the…

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At a concert, no one can hear you scream

I saw both M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap and Fede Álvarez’ Alien: Romulus over the past few weeks, and while I didn’t really feel compelled to write a post about either of them, I guess I find myself now writing about both. Not necessarily, to compare them, but because I still find myself thinking about both, and I guess they are somewhat in conversation…I’m pantsing here, so we’ll see how this…

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My legs are too short to kickbox with Oz

Osgood Perkins’ Longlegs is a movie I wanted to like more than I did. And despite what I have to say in the bulk of this post, Longlegs has a lot going for it. Perkins is incredible at composing shots that compel you to focus on the backgrounds, looking down hallways and through doorways in anticipation of a threat the characters cannot see. As exemplified by the movie’s incredible PR campaign,…

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Kinds of Thelma: Rising

I’ve been negligent with reviewing movies as I watch them, which means when I finally do get around to writing about them, I feel more like I’m recalling my initial thoughts and reactions to the movie rather than documenting them. However, I do want to share my opinions about the things I’ve watched over the past month because well – if I didn’t have these urges, I wouldn’t have a…

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HIT MAN (2023) Id, Ego, ACAB

Upfront, I really enjoyed Hit Man. Linklater has always been great at helming these breezy kinda cozy comedies, and I’m glad that Glen Powell is cashing in his Maverick cache to work with these – if not daring – different projects and doing a big part in reviving the talent-driven mid-/low-budget feature. Not to bully The Fall Guy – which, again, I really really enjoyed – but while both manage to…

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Furiosa - Emphasis on "Saga"

You gotta feel bad for The Fall Guy. As good and fun a movie as it is – and I enjoyed it quite a bit – where it uses a Mad Max pastiche as a vehicle to celebrate the work of stunt engineers and performers; Furiosa sneaks up behind it, and in George Miller’s Aussie accent, taunts “You call that a stunt?” Because where other filmmakers make movies about making movies, Miller’s ambition seems to be…

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I Saw the TV Glow - A Tough Egg to Crack

I did not have many friends in middle school. So, like many socially awkward pre-teens of my generation, I went online. And like many of those pre-teens seeking community online, I found anime. After exhausting the episodes of Naruto, Bleach, and Fullmetal Alchemist legally available through [Adult Swim], and asking forums about cool new anime to watch, and working my way through supposedly…

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CHALLENGERS is a Sports Anime

Boss Baby me all you want, but Challengers is a sports anime in the exact same way Creed 3 is a sports anime; and I’d be surprised if neither director Luca Guadagnino nor writer Justin Kuritzkes cites – specifically – Masaaki Yuasa’s masterpiece, Ping Pong: The Animation as an influence. Even Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ steller soundtrack recalls the high-energy propulsive synths of Kensuke…

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The People's Joker is a better class of comic book movie

The reason I’ve sat on this review for over a week after seeing this movie is because I’m really not sure what my review can add to it, which thoughts or reactions of mine could possibly contribute to the dialogue Vera Drew forwards in any meaningful way, what I can say that the movie hasn’t. The People’s Joker, if not perfect, feels complete; a rigorously personal piece of art that feels at…

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Love Lies Bleeding and the precarious comfort of giants

In Japanese “大丈夫” (Daijoubu) is a catch-all that roughly translates to “It’s alright.” If you trip, someone it’s the phrase you would exchange with the person who checks up on you. “Daijoubu?” “Daijoubu.” Etymologically, 大丈夫 breaks down into 大 “big”, and 丈夫 “sturdy.” And 夫 on its own can translate to “man.” So, one could say that, in Japanese, wellness means being like a big sturdy man. Big…