TIFF Journal: Bad Education (2019)
Director Cory Finley takes the good will from his 2017 debut Thoroughbreds and ups the ante even further. Bad Education is a bleak, comical, and surprisingly effective film about a high school finance scandal.
Tag Archives: Hugh Jackman
Missing Link Review: Barges, Trains, and Cross Atlantic Ships
Stop-motion animation studio Laika might not crank out films in rapid succession, but has been incredibly consistent in the high quality of what it does release. Every Laika film has been nominated for an Oscar, and it would be su...
TIFF Journal: The Front Runner
Like so many Jason Reitman productions, The Front Runner isn’t necessarily a terrible movie so much as a frustrating one. Compelling points could be made from mining the story of disgraced U.S. Senator Gary Hart and the precedent ...
‘The Greatest Showman’ Review: More Like the Mediocre
Define irony. How about a movie about the value of putting on a great show that is a mediocre show at best? Well, that’s ‘The Greatest Showman’ for you. The film is a massively expensive musical ode to old-fashioned showbiz razzma...
The Trailer Park: A Fictionalized Truth
With the summer movie season now in full swing, it’s time to look ahead at what to expect in the fall and winter. We start with a trio of tales loosely based on true stories.
Poll: ‘Logan’ Noir or Couleur?
After a very successful run at the box office, director James Mangold has brought his ‘X-Men’ spinoff ‘Logan’ to Blu-ray and Ultra HD in two versions: the original color photography or a new black-and-white edition called ‘Logan N...
‘Logan’ Review: A Farewell to the Claws
Hugh Jackman claims that he’s hanging up the Wolverine claws after ‘Logan’. James Mangold’s battered and embittered love letter to the wounded warrior is one of the most pained and deep deconstructions of the pop culture icon that...
‘Eddie the Eagle’ Review: Satisfying Sap
Hollywood sure loves a sentimental sports bio-pic. You get the built-in drama of a sporting event and the crowd-pleasing fuzzies of a triumph-over-adversity story along with a celebrity protagonist that a famous actor can plug int...
‘Pan’ Review: Not Your Daddy’s Peter
Apparently it’s necessary to resurrect and remake ‘Peter Pan’ every five years. The cycle has come around again and this time fell into the unlikely hands of ‘Atonement’ and ‘Hanna’ director Joe Wright. Not content to merely go th...
‘That Sugar Film’ Review: Documentary Narcissism with
‘Super Size Me’ might have been a great gimmick to hinge a documentary around, but the movie also empowered people who likely shouldn’t be making documentaries or jokes to pick up a camera. The latest unfortunate soul to get in on...
‘Chappie’ Review: Not Quite RoboCop, But No Short Cir
‘District 9’ was an explosive announcement of new directorial voice, but now, two movies later, Neill Blomkamp is still struggling to top or even match it. The verdict has yet to drop as to whether he’s a one-hit wonder, but at le...
Weekend Roundtable: 2015 Oscar Snubs
This time ever year, voters in the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences make their nominations for what they believe were the best movies of the prior year. And this time every year, viewers like us gripe about all the mov...