Dir. Steve McQueen. Starring Viola Davis, Elizabeth Debicki, Michelle Rodriguez Widows begins with a long take of Liam Neeson and Viola Davis kissing. There’s a lot of tongue. It’s 2018, and it’s the first time I’ve seen an interracial kiss onscreen with that much tongue involved. I have said it many times, and I have… Read More Widows (2018)
Dir. Sean Baker. Starring Brooklynn Prince, Bria Vinaite, Willem Dafoe (Or, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Representation.”) On many levels, The Florida Project is a good movie, and the majority of those are technical. There are some good wallpaper shots, such as when Moonee (Prince) and her friend Jancey (Valeria Cotto) look… Read More The Florida Project (2017)
Dir. Spike Lee. Starring John David Washington, Adam Driver, Topher Grace BlacKkKlansman begins with the famous crane shot from Gone with the Wind, where Scarlett, desperate to pass off the responsibility for delivering Melanie’s baby, looks for Dr. Meade. It pulls further and further and further away from what must be hundreds of men lying… Read More BlacKkKlansman (2018)
Dir. Susan Johnson. Starring Lana Condor, Noah Centineo, Anna Cathcart Image links back here In all the articles weeping and wailing about how romantic comedies are dead, there are frequent culprits like “the demise of the mid-budget movie” or “the target demographics like superheroes” or even just “Katherine Heigl” are always at the forefront. But… Read More To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (2018)
Dir. Jeff Nichols. Starring Ruth Negga, Joel Edgerton, Nick Kroll My humble definition of a biopic is “any movie which makes months, and preferably years, of a real human being’s life into its plot.” By my own definition, I would say that Loving qualifies as a biopic of Richard and Mildred Loving (Edgerton and Negga,… Read More Loving (2016)
Dir. Brad Bird. Starring Holly Hunter, Craig T. Nelson, Catherine Keener I never write about movies on their opening weekend, but because I am here…spoilers. Many spoilers. In the abstract, an Incredibles 2 seems as heinous as a Toy Story 4. Both The Incredibles and Toy Story 3 end, in my opinion, quite completely and… Read More The Incredibles 2 (2018)
Dir. James Gray. Starring Charlie Hunnam, Robert Pattinson, Sienna Miller Would it be a movie about fin-de-siécle Englishman without a stag hunt? It’s how The Lost City of Z begins, showing us how Percy Fawcett (Hunnam) is not like the other men. The other military men going on this hunt are not his equals in… Read More The Lost City of Z (2016)
Dir. James Schamus. Starring Logan Lerman, Sarah Gadon, Tracy Letts Rather than reading American Pastoral or Portnoy’s Complaint for the millionth times, the first Philip Roth novel I read after his death was one I’d never read before. Indignation, a slim and recent addition to his oeuvre, was at the library; so was Indignation, the… Read More Indignation (2016)
Dir. Paul Feig. Starring Kristen Wiig, Rose Byrne, Maya Rudolph What makes Bridesmaids work several years down the line, and what I expect will make it stand the test of time for at least a couple decades, is its keen eye on the Recession. Annie (Wiig) is one of the only characters in the film… Read More Bridesmaids (2011)
Dir. Guillermo del Toro. Starring Sally Hawkins, Doug Jones, Michael Shannon I can’t help but feel I saw The Shape of Water for the first time back in October, when I went to see Murder on the Orient Express in theaters and first encountered the trailer for Shape of Water. If you’ve seen the trailer, or if you watched the Oscars… Read More The Shape of Water (2017)
Seeing Things Secondhand 