The first part of this series, where I talk about the historical context for superhero movies as a genre, is here. The second part, where I talk the superhero movies I think are the best, as well as the superhero movies other people think are the best, is here. The Auteurs of the Superhero Genre… Read More The Fourth Genre: The Auteurs
This is the second part of a three-part series. The first part, where I talk about the superhero genre’s place among other quintessentially American film genres, is here. The Best of the Fourth Genre What I was going to do here, in the interests of giving you the wisdom of crowds and critics, was one… Read More The Fourth Genre: The Best Superhero Movies
The actor: Brad Bird The character: Edna Mode The film: The Incredibles The line: “No capes!” On April 23, 1957, the SNL and sitcom veteran Jan Hooks was born, but we know that death is as much a part of life as birth. On that same day, the superhero Stratogale was killed when she was… Read More Top 100 American Movie Quotes of the 21st Century: #25
Steven Hyden introduced his five-albums test more than a decade ago as a third way to judge a band, short of its popularity or its critical acclaim. While this one is not meant to stand on its own—for example, he’s not sure that either Bob Dylan nor the Rolling Stones had made five great albums… Read More The Five-Movies Test or: Which Director Has Had the Best Stretch of Consecutive Feature-Length Films in English?
I started this meta-analysis hoping to have somewhere between fifteen and twenty lists to go on. In the end I found forty, because the results kept shifting when I’d enter new data. For the Tarantino analysis, for example, adding more lists would basically just solidify where every movie landed. Here, though, there are multiple pairs… Read More Pixar Meta-Analysis
The landing page, with rationale and links to other posts in this series, can be found here. Most of what I said in my last post about Toy Story 2 carries over to Ratatouille, with the caveat that the theoretical in this movie comes out more strongly, and Ratatouille cuts out a lot of the silliness that Toy Story 2 didn’t benefit… Read More Disney/Pixar Rankings: 10-6
The landing page, with rationale and links to other posts in this series, can be found here. Somewhere towards the end of this movie, I had to level with myself. I was laughing my butt off at basically everything Jack-Jack did, but as the movie decided to get closer to solving its plot and further away… Read More Disney/Pixar Rankings: 45-41
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)
You can read up on the basis for this series here, and also find links to other posts in the series. Movies I’ve reviewed on this site have a link in the title which you can follow to read my full review. 5) Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), directed by Woody Allen (Straightens tie, looks… Read More 100 Exceptional American Movies in 10 Genres: Family Drama, 5-1
You can read up on the basis for this series here, and also find links to other posts in the series. Movies I’ve reviewed on this site have a link in the title which you can follow to read my full review. 10) Arrival (2016), directed by Denis Villeneuve “What if communicating with aliens… Read More 100 Exceptional American Movies in 10 Genres: Speculative, 10-6
Seeing Things Secondhand 