There’s an inherent danger in nostalgia. As we’ve witnessed over the past four years, slogans about some mythical better time in America can come loaded with prejudice. Those good ol’ days weren’t all that great for everyone. But there are some anachronistic artifacts that are worth … if not celebrating, …
Read More »
The new HBO miniseries The Third Day begins with a leisurely, God’s-eye view of a verdant English country road, disturbing music, and the unmistakable sound of Jude Law‘s voice in distress saying, “What? Oh, no, no, no, no, no.” It’s early morning, and the character he’s playing, Sam, is already …
Read More »
Make your own exit plan for Exit Plan, a Danish downer from director Jonas Alexander Arnby, who clearly thinks the indisputable charisma of star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau will be enough to sustain our interest. He’s wrong. This solid actor who won an Emmy nomination for playing Jaime Lannister on Game of …
Read More »
What do you say about a documentary that concedes the reputation of director Paul Verhoeven’s 1995 Showgirls as “a piece of shit” and still makes a case for the most explicit, expensive NC-17 sexcapade this side of Caligula as “a stealth masterpiece”? For trash-cinema aficionados, Jeffrey McHale’s feature debut doc …
Read More »
You might be craving those loud, brash, blowed-up-real-good blockbusters that’d normally lay claim to half the screens of multiplexes this month. It’s almost the beginning of summer, and who has the willpower to fight that seasonal Pavlovian urge? (Just watch out for any action movie in which A-list stars are …
Read More »
It’s just a jacket, a Western-style suede coat that’s the color of lightly varnished wood. The most notable aspect is the fringe, which lends it a distinct Wild West feeling — you could picture Buffalo Bill Cody stalking a bison while wearing it. Its previous owner claims the garment is …
Read More »
Near the end of the first season #blackAF, the character Kenya Barris — overworked TV writer, inattentive husband and father — finds wisdom in an unexpected place: an episode of black-ish, a sitcom created by… the real Kenya Barris. “The humble words that Andre Johnson said — that I wrote …
Read More »
In a telling example of how bad things can happen to creative people, the prosecution presents The Last Thing He Wanted. How does a director as stellar as Dee Rees (Mudbound, Pariah) go so thunderously wrong adapting a 1996 novel by the great Joan Didion, with a cast headed by …
Read More »