Dir. Matt Spicer. Starring Aubrey Plaza, O’Shea Jackson, Elizabeth Olsen I don’t know where Matt Spicer went to film school. I don’t even know if Matt Spicer went to film school. (Maybe David Branson Smith did? He also has a screenwriting credit for this picture, and I know as little about him as I do… Read More Ingrid Goes West (2017)
Dir. Ari Folman The movie which is probably the clearest companion to Waltz with Bashir is Tower, the Keith Maitland documentary about the University of Texas shootings in 1966. Like Waltz with Bashir, Tower is primarily animated despite its status as documentary, and like Waltz with Bashir relies on interviews with witnesses to tell the story. They even end similarly: after… Read More Waltz with Bashir (2008)
Dir. David Yates. Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint What Half-Blood Prince has in bunches, as much as any Potter movie with the possible exception of Goblet of Fire, is humor. If this is one of the Potter movies you cape for, then how funny it can be has to play a significant role. There’s some good… Read More Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
Dir. David Yates. Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Michael Gambon Chris Columbus’ versions of Harry Potter were loving if long-winded, Alfonso Cuaron’s…I hate using this word, but it really was disruptive…and remarkable, and Mike Newell’s clean and effective. If those are all true, then David Yates’ versions are by and large ham-fisted. Yates’ four adaptations… Read More Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)
Dir. Chris Columbus. Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson The great strength of Sorcerer’s Stone is that it leaned all the way into making us awestruck at the Wizarding World. The great failure of Chamber of Secrets is that it leaves aside that sense of discovery which came with its predecessor. For example, a… Read More Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
Dir. Quentin Tarantino. Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins Gilbert: Now, the local alchemist is killed in an explosion. And there, among his effects, a chorus of villagers discover a potion. Sullivan: Magic, no doubt. Gilbert: Indeed. Sullivan: I thought as much. Gilbert: The effect of this magic potion is to transform… Read More The Hateful Eight (2015)
Dir. Don Taylor. Starring Kirk Douglas, James Farentino, Martin Sheen There’s an interesting scene in The Final Countdown. (Yes, I do mean it’s the only interesting scene. The Final Countdown is a real drag.) A yacht out on a pleasure cruise, carrying a U.S. senator, his secretary, a friend, some crew, and a mercifully invulnerable dog… Read More The Final Countdown (1980)
Dir. Yann Demange. Starring Jack O’Connell, Sean Harris, David Wilmot If you think that more civilized discourse would go a long way to solving our political problems, if you are socially liberal and economically conservative, if you wistfully recall the dominion of uber-WASPs like George H.W. Bush, if you think “All Lives Matter” gets at… Read More ’71 (2014)
Dir. Paddy Considine. Starring Peter Mullan, Olivia Colman, Eddie Marsan Three British movies of 2011 far outshine the rest of that year: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Shame, and We Need to Talk About Kevin. The first is a movie about the trail cruelty leaves, the way a betrayal goes on to damage people far outside… Read More Tyrannosaur (2011)
Dir. Ted Berman and Richard Rich. Starring Grant Bardsley, Nigel Hawthorne, Susan Sheridan I really wanted to like The Black Cauldron, which has a reputation as the bête noire of Disney at its lowest point of the 20th Century. As ever with Disney, that’s a low point concerning profits, not quality. From 1977 to 1986,… Read More The Black Cauldron (1985)
Seeing Things Secondhand 