In Theaters
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Parasite (R)
“You know what kind of plan never fails? No plan at all,” muses Kim Ki-taek (Song Kang-ho) in Parasite, the latest film from Korean maestro Bong Joon-ho. It’s an apt sentiment: the movie is so full of wild energy it feels as if it could throw control to the winds and spin off the rails […]
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The Lighthouse (R)
Unlike many of his modern peers, there’s something appreciable about Robert Eggers’ unfussy approach to the horror genre. The Witch might just be the most frightening horror film of this decade – incredible, given that it feels pulled from a different era of filmmaking altogether. But what made that film work wonders in its bid to […]
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Joker (R)
Joker is a movie no one knew they wanted, least of all a diehard Batman fan such as myself, but it’s a deeply moving, disturbing tragedy about the world modernity built. It might be the most culturally important film to arrive in a long time. It does a Taxi Driver impression arguably better than Taxi […]
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Ad Astra (PG-13)
Ad Astra is a story of fathers and sons. It is about the way men are out of touch with their feelings because kindness and intimacy were never modeled for them. It is about confronting the emptiness of space and reckoning with our place within the universe. It is exactly the film I feared it […]
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It: Chapter 2 (R)
As Stephen King writes his way through his fifth decade, he holds the most credible claim to the title Greatest Horror Writer of the 20th Century. Others may have reached greater heights (say, for instance, William Peter Blatty), but those who did cannot match King’s prolific output. Those who have published comparatively often (this time we […]
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Overcomer (PG)
Overcomer, the latest film from Alex Kendrick and his brother Stephen, continues the filmmaking tradition begun with 2006’s Facing the Giants – movies made with evangelical Christian faith as both the heart and goal of the narrative. What Overcomer also continues is the increase in filmmaking skill evidenced by the Kendrick Brothers. The first act […]
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Apocalypse Now: Final Cut (R)
Mistah Kurtz – he dead. This bleak pronouncement closes Joseph Conrad’s 1899 novella, Heart of Darkness, and opens T.S. Eliot’s 1925 poem, The Hollow Men. Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 film, Apocalypse Now, completes the circle by following the outline of Conrad’s novella – a voyage up a river to find a madman named Kurtz – and […]
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Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (PG-13)
As humans, we are predisposed to relate through stories. Considering that some of the earliest forms of recording history itself came from cave drawings and hieroglyphics, which recorded events through broad illustrations that predate storybooks, it makes absolute sense that a proclivity towards storytelling is something ingrained into our subconscious. Maybe that’s why we’re able […]
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Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood (R)
“Quentin Tarantino used to love people.” That, at least, is the complaint Joshua Gibbs once leveled against the last couple decades of the man’s work. It was an elegant summary. Whatever their strengths, Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained, and the like are populated primarily by types, resembling action figures more than human beings. The complaint – “Quentin Tarantino […]
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Midsommar (R)
Apparently the horror genre needed to be saved. That’s what I keep hearing whenever people refer to modern era horror directors like Jordan Peele and Ari Aster. As if the genre has never truly been smart or introspective or about society at large. Of course the genre is mostly looked down upon as some cheap form […]
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Spider-Man: Far From Home (PG-13)
There is nothing damagingly, damningly wrong with Spider-Man: Far From Home that would render it unwatchable. But neither is there much to commend it. To be sure, the film is uproariously funny, and the performances are engaging. The film even exceeds expectations in its action sequences. Because the set-pieces are staged live on location in European cities, instead of in wide-open spaces with bland computer-generated backgrounds, the tussles between Spider-Man, Mysterio, and the Elementals have a sense of tactility, geographical clarity, and human stakes that MCU battles have often lacked. I will also grant that the film has two show-stopping, jaw-dropping sequences that are among the MCU’s finest moments of visual storytelling. But the MCU has almost always been funny, and often to its detriment.
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Annabelle Comes Home (R)
Annabelle Comes Home does not attempt to rewrite the rules of a good horror movie. It does not even attempt to rewrite the rules of a good Conjuring movie. Instead, the film shows its merits by demonstrating the continuing vitality of both jump scares and horror movies where unabashed good stares evil in the face without flinching. There is a future for this franchise indeed.
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Child’s Play (2019) (R)
Someone, somewhere, I don’t know who, once said that instead of Hollywood choosing to remake movies that were considered classics or were fondly remembered, they should do the exact opposite and remake the movies that failed to work the first time around but still had some considerable promise to their premises. Great idea, and an […]
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Brightburn (R)
The text of Psalm 130:3 is familiar to Christians everywhere, even if the reference isn’t. In this verse the Psalmist, anonymous but speculated by generations of commentators to be David, asks a timeless question: If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? Commenting on this verse, Matthew Poole writes, “This […]
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Toy Story 4 (G)
About midway through, Toy Story 4 tosses out a 2001 joke, which is only mildly surprising — what is Pixar known for, after all, if not their magically synchronous grasp on both rich maturity and wonder-instilling innocence? Their artistry has always extended past the typical fifty-fifty split between fart jokes to keep the kids drooling […]
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Booksmart (R)
Every decade has that one teen comedy that just speaks to a particular generation, accurately capturing the zeitgeist in a way that not only makes it irresistible in the moment, but imbues the film with a sense of almost historical importance. These include such hits as Animal House, Sixteen Candles, American Pie, Mean Girls, and Superbad, amongst others. But the 2010s really hadn’t found […]
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Dark Phoenix (PG-13)
It’s difficult to imagine nowadays, but there was a time when superhero films had to make an effort to sell themselves to an audience. Studios genuinely didn’t know if people would be willing to buy into all the fantastical and often strange inner workings of comic book storytelling. After 1997’s disastrously bad Batman & Robin sank like an anchor […]
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Godzilla: King of the Monsters (PG-13)
In interviews, director/cowriter Michael Dougherty has called his Godzilla: King of the Monsters “the Aliens to [the 2014 Godzilla]’s Alien.” The comparison is an apt one. Alien, directed by Ridley Scott in 1979, was a moody, slow-burning horror film, prizing dread and atmosphere over character or plot. Its 1986 sequel, James Cameron’s Aliens, shifted gears […]
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John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (R)
John Wick was slick, streamlined, and light on its feet. Clocking in at ninety minutes, it was short and sweet. It knew what it was about (violence of the ultra-cool variety), and how it was about it (headshots — lots and lots of headshots), and did it pretty well. The problem, of course, is that […]
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Avengers: Endgame (PG-13)
One of the many, many things the Marvel Cinematic Universe has severely lacked is a sense of poetry — visually, verbally, thematically, or otherwise. But what strikes me about Avengers: Endgame is that it is a small but significant step toward reversing that trend. The film contains a surprising number of poetic touches and grace […]