As our country struggles with its foundational mythology, we are faced with the question of how the story would be framed if it were written by those whose names are lost to history yet participated in its creation. Though First Cow is not made with a didactic tone, it asks us to consider vital questions […]
The greatest horrors of the movie world are creatures pulled straight from our nightmares, abominations that mutate from our most irrational fears. It is cathartic and emotionally healthy to confront the monsters that scare us, in order to realize that they have no power over us. The monsters of the real world are far more […]
How wonderful it is to see a film about art that treats the creative process as an essential part of the human experience, free of the fetishization of suffering, or the detachment of genius worship. The narrative of Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire centers on the relationship between a painter and her […]
Is anyone actually this nostalgic? Beneath the song and dance and snappy dialogue in the new Lion King is a feeling of resignation and inevitability. This reenactment—remake would imply that something is different from the beloved 1994 animated film—fails to explain to puzzled audiences why it [...]
The first question that will inevitably come up regarding Spider-Man: Far From Home is: How does it compare to the other screen portrayals that followed Sam Raimi’s landmark films? But let’s be honest, that train of thought goes nowhere useful. In terms of superhero movies and blockbusters in [...]
The conclusion of the X-Men franchise was never going to be great, but it didn’t have to be this bad. Back when the first film came out in 2000, the idea of a series of sustained and even quality films based on comic books had not solidified—Superman, Batman, and Blade all started strong but [...]
As other non-Marvel cinematic universes either crumble (Dark Universe), or limp along on life support between occasional jolts of excitement (DCEU), the MonsterVerse has been slowly gaining momentum like a long-dormant giant. It started in 2014 with Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla, a technically solid [...]
There’s no one way to make a fact-based film, as 2018 has shown. From the satiric heights of The Death of Stalin to the self-parodic depths of Gotti, and with many major contenders to come (Bohemian Rhapsody, Beautiful Boy, Welcome To Marwen), all have different goals, from education, to poetic [...]