Although Netflix has been in the business of making original movie content for about two years, it's fair to say that 2017 is the year when they finally broke through as a major player on the movie scene in general. This year they are on track to release an astonishing 60 original narrative and documentary …
John Carpenter's impossibly bleak horror movie The Thing has the rare distinction of being both a remake - of the Howard Hawks produced The Thing From Another World (1951) - and having been remade itself as the unnecessary reboot/prequel The Thing (2011). Among the few movies that this is true of, it has the even rarer distinction of being the best version of …
Being frightened is an underrated quality of childhood in our often overprotective parenting environments. We fear scarring our kids and we value their innocence so we do everything we can to shield them from the darker side of life. As a parent of two myself, I completely understand the instinct and am entirely susceptible to …
Famously Henri-Georges Clouzot's school-yard chiller Diabolique closes with a placard begging the viewer not to reveal the ending of the movie. Unlike most spoiler warnings, this request is not made because the movie's magic falls apart once the reveals are made. Even on my fourth viewing this film managed to capture my attention and rope …
It is hard to overstate just how big a deal The Matrix was when it first came out. The sci-fi action thriller seemed to perfectly combine heady philosophical concepts with kick-ass action. It's dystopic world was at once wonderfully alien and also shockingly not so far from ours. It felt completely relevant to reality at the end …
Continue reading Franchise Ruminations: The Matrix Trilogy as Misunderstood Masterpiece
It's no secret that ever since I've gotten a child my opportunities to watch movies has decreased significantly. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade parenthood for the world, but the fact is my childless days afforded me many chances to check out movies on the big screen. However a side-benefit of having a child …
Continue reading Big Screen Double-Header: Baby Driver & Logan Lucky
The story starts out simple and conventional enough. We meet the titular character (John Turturro) in the moment of his breakthrough triumph as he opens a successful proletariat play in New York and is summoned to Hollywood for a quick cash-grab on his presumptive journey to crafting a new and better theatre "for the common …
If Snow White was the coming out party for Walt Disney and for feature animation, then Fantasia is the wild, slightly drunk, and fearless after-party in which all caution is thrown to the wind and the Walt Disney company simply decided to go for broke. It is hard to understate just how bizarre a movie Fantasia is. There was nothing …
There is a reason why it's a cliche to call something a "sophomore slump". As every artist knows it's incredibly hard to follow up whatever made you successful in the first place. Try to stick with what went well the first time, and people accuse you of simply retreading old grounds. Try to venture too …
Ghost World tells the story about a loner kid who doesn't fit in any of the conventional boxes of teenage life and so she embraces her idiosyncrasies and weirdness, using it as a weapon to keep people away. Her weaponized weirdness draws precious few people in and keeps all the "normals" out. We meet Enid (Thora Birch) …
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