It would be against the spirit of Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of Little Women to compare it to other versions, particularly the 1994 one directed by Gillian Armstrong. Just as the March sisters are all different yet equally deserving of a fair shot at happiness, so too does each adaptation tap into a separate aspect of […]
This year was an embarrassment of riches when it comes to quality filmmaking. Long-established directors were firing on all cylinders, while new talents were upping their game. Top-tier work could be found at all levels, from megaplexes to arthouses and even on demand. So, while these are my picks for the best of 2019, they […]
Subverting genre conventions is one thing. Channeling them into a wholly unique artistic vision is another thing entirely. This is what sets English filmmaker Peter Strickland apart as an innovator, even as he works with decades-old material. Film after film, he manages to be postmodern yet devotional, ironic yet totally sincere. A giallo slasher with […]
Trey Edward Shults’ Waves is an ambitious next step for the writer-director of Krisha and It Comes at Night, balancing his atmospheric skills against a complex narrative of parental pressure, trauma, transgression, and redemption with overtones of race and class. It is very nearly a runaway [...]
In the grand tradition of Agatha Christie comes Rian Johnson’s Knives Out, an ingenious, exciting, rollicking good time. It’s best experienced with no knowledge of the plot, so if that’s enough to convince you to see it, our job here is done. If you need a little more, read on, where we will [...]
Investigative thriller The Report cares so passionately for its subject matter that it could almost be considered a new work of journalism, rather than a docudrama. Director Scott Z. Burns has written and produced several films on the theme of speaking truth to power using any means available, [...]
The best thing you can do with a Stanley Kubrick sequel is to make it as un-Kubrick as possible. Mike Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep, adapted from Stephen King’s follow-up to The Shining, has about much interest in recreating its predecessor as its lead character, grown-up Danny Torrance (Ewan [...]
The good news is that you’ll love writer/director/actor Taika Waititi. The bad news is there’s no charming your way out of a misfire as big as Jojo Rabbit. You can see that this is an “anti-hate satire,” with it plastered over all of the promotional materials like it’s the official subtitle, [...]
The progression from animated family film to straight-to-Netflix series is perfectly natural. Kids want to spend more time with the characters, studios want to keep the property in the public eye between installments, and parents just want something that isn’t totally mind-numbing for them and [...]
If Todd Phillips’ Joker had been better, or worse, then the pre-release controversy might have been worth something. If it defied the odds as a prestige work, or if it were a sloppy misfire, the incessant discourse might have led somewhere interesting. But a technically slick yet thematically [...]
When two similar movies are made in close proximity, they are often described as “twin films.” Think Armageddon and Deep Impact, The Prestige and The Illusionist, and now Smallfoot and Abominable. The worst thing they can do is give you déjà vu, like you’ve seen this story before. The best is [...]
The problem that has always plagued adaptations of Stephen King’s IT is that the two halves—kids and grown-ups—are not equally interesting. Nostalgic coming-of-age tales of scary monsters and friendship are inherently more engaging than 40-somethings with bad memories. Chapter One put us in the [...]
The class rage-fueled horror comedy Ready or Not is for anyone who’s been robbed of the life they deserve, in order to further someone else’s wealth, status, or tradition. It’s a bloody, hilarious, and satisfyingly mean parable that’s not only mad about income inequality. It’s mad about the [...]
The child performers in Good Boys are quite good, and the jokes can be very funny, but what do you do with a movie that forces you to compare it to something better? It’s Superbad for sixth graders in almost every way: Produced by Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen, and Jonah Hill, Good Boys follows [...]
Delight is not a word you often associate with a Quentin Tarantino film, but damn if you don’t leave Once Upon a Time in Hollywood with a smile on your face. The delight is usually QT’s, who every few years gets to share his latest pastiche, a focused fever dream informed by childhood [...]
The release of Avengers:Infinity War last year felt like the grand payoff of our decade-long investment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Twenty years ago, most of the public hadn’t even heard of many of these heroes, but their erasure from existence by the snap of Thanos’ finger and our [...]
Aretha Franklin’s Amazing Grace, released in 1972, remains to this day the highest-selling live gospel album of all time, a stunning display of raw talent, passion, and emotion. Regardless of your beliefs, or lack of them, you can’t help but have a near religious experience while listening to [...]
Many times, a film based on true events will inspire you to seek out the source material once it’s over. Not necessarily to test the movie for accuracy—facts are sometimes changed for clarity or artistic license—but as a way of further engaging with a story. Even a film à clef based on actual [...]
With Get Out, Jordan Peele electrified the world of modern horror filmmaking, reinvigorating the potential for strong socio-political messages in harrowing and entertaining packages. The message amplified the scares and vice versa, sending shockwaves all the way to the Academy Awards. With Us, [...]
As Disney finds the next title from its vault to adapt, Border explores what it means to truly update a fairy tale for modern audiences. What is a fairy tale, after all, but a story that explores the space where our world and the realm of spirits, demons, monsters, and other mythological beings [...]
Films by or about women don’t need to be masterpieces in order to have the right to exist. It’s a point that should be obvious by now, but sadly needs to be made every single time some group with nothing better to do decides that X movie is the next battleground because God forbid a […]
When the great classics of world literature were first being written, they were not meant for students or academics decades or centuries in the future. First and foremost, they were meant to foster a relationship between reader and writer. For Andrew Kaufman, who teaches Russian literature at [...]
If Peter Berg was more interested in emulating Michael Mann than Michael Bay, Mile 22 might be something. An international thriller based around getting a high-value asset from point A to point B through extremely hostile territory within a very narrow window should be exciting from beginning [...]