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Weekend Roundtable: From Indie to Payday

Josh Zyber — Fri, 08 Mar 2019 18:00:03 +0000

After her Oscar win for Room, Brie Larson jumped right into the gargantuan Kong: Skull Island and is now headlining a mega-budget Marvel superhero flick. Our Roundtable this week looks at other actors who’ve made the leap from indie acclaim to blockbuster stardom. David Krauss Though opportunities for black actresses are growing (it’s about frickin’...

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Weekend Roundtable: Screen Legends Who Never Won Oscars

Josh Zyber — Fri, 01 Mar 2019 17:00:51 +0000

Earlier this week, Glenn Close was denied the Academy Award that everybody thought she’d win. The actress can take comfort that this puts her in good company with plenty of other veteran actors and filmmakers who also somehow went without ever winning an Oscar in competition. Maybe Close will get an honorary or lifetime achievement...

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Weekend Roundtable: Worst Movies by 2019 Oscar Nominees

Josh Zyber — Fri, 01 Feb 2019 20:00:26 +0000

As they bask in all the acclaim and recognition, let’s not forget that many of this year’s Oscar nominated filmmakers and thespians are also responsible for some genuine cinematic garbage. What’s the worst movie made by one of this year’s nominees? David Krauss The same year Bradley Cooper made his breakout film The Hangover, he...

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Vice Review: Weak Veep Satire

Jason Gorber — Fri, 28 Dec 2018 13:00:30 +0000

Comedy is hard. Political comedy is harder. The awards are greater when you pull it off, but the pitfalls are deeper when you fail to get the tone right, the content intelligent enough, or the humor fully intact. Adam McKay’s Vice tries hard to strike this balance, but never quite succeeds despite the valiant efforts...

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‘Justice League’ Review: A Superhero Mashup/Mess Up

Philip Brown — Wed, 15 Nov 2017 18:00:32 +0000

Warner Bros.’ big, bloated ‘Justice League’ has been the subject of so many sneering editorials and clickbait news stories about reshoots that it’s almost a shock to see the movie even make it to theaters. Unsurprisingly, the flick suffers from a serious identity crisis. Whatever it was that Zack Snyder initially planned for this ‘Batman...

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‘Nocturnal Animals’ Review: Meta Tragedy

Philip Brown — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 20:00:50 +0000

Weaving stories within stories within pretty pictures, Tom Ford’s ‘Nocturnal Animals’ is an immaculately constructed cinematic contraption that just might be a little empty inside. Like the fashion designer-turned-director’s previous feature, ‘A Single Man‘, the aesthetic qualities of the film are designed down to the tiniest detail, but emotions run cold and humanity remains distant....

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‘Arrival’ Review: Intelligent (and Moving) Invasion

Philip Brown — Wed, 09 Nov 2016 20:00:24 +0000

Generally, when giant alien spacecraft appear out of nowhere around the globe, it’s a bad thing. If ‘Independence Day’ proved nothing else, it’s that those ET ain’t friendly and deserve to be greeted with a mixture of firepower and one-liners. Then there are the more thoughtful outings in this particular genre, like Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Arrival’,...

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TIFF Journal: ‘Arrival’

Philip Brown — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 19:00:13 +0000

Denis Villeneuve continues his transition from Canadian indies to sprawling Hollywood fables that retain his masterful style and personal touch. After last year’s searing drug war thriller ‘Sicario’, the director has gone all sci-fi with a movie that starts like ‘Independence Day’ and ends like ‘2001’. In between, Villeneuve manages to weave a credible human...

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‘Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice’ Review: Well, At Least It Looks Pretty

Philip Brown — Thu, 24 Mar 2016 04:00:19 +0000

After three years of studio hype and internet hate, ‘Batman v. Superman’ is finally here. Predictably, the first wave of reviews have been overwhelmingly harsh. However, for the most part, that reaction has been a little overblown. ‘Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice’ (just rolls off the tongue, don’t it?) is neither as good as...

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‘Big Eyes’ Review: A Very Burton Bio

Philip Brown — Tue, 23 Dec 2014 16:00:46 +0000

It’s been a couple years since Tim Burton emerged from what we can only assume to be an isolated Gothic mansion to make a new movie. His past few films felt like regressions, and his last (‘Frankenweenie’) was quite literally a remake of his own work. Thankfully, the director has returned with something that, on...

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Oscar Poll: Best Actress 2014

Josh Zyber — Thu, 27 Feb 2014 15:00:42 +0000

The Best Actress category this year is perhaps a much tighter race than Best Actor. All but one of the nominated actresses already have Oscar statuettes on their mantles. Is this Amy Adams’ year, or is she destined to perpetually be a bridesmaid at the Academy Awards? When the nominations were first announced, I felt...

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Now Playing: So Into ‘Her’

Philip Brown — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 17:00:40 +0000

They say all good science fiction is actually about today. In Spike Jonze’s latest wonderful feature, ‘Her’, that feels particularly true. The story feels not merely set 15 minutes in the future, but just one Apple press conference away from reality. The world is one in which the entire population of a rustling city wanders...

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