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
Dir. Marc Webb. Starring Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx Every movie adaptation of the Batman story has to cope with the Joker in the same way that whenever Poochie’s not on screen, the other characters should be asking, “Where’s Poochie?” “The Night Gwen Stacy Died” doesn’t cast quite as long a shadow as Poochie… Read More The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)
The actor: Cliff Robertson The character: Ben Parker, alias “Uncle Ben” The film: Spider-Man The line: “Remember, with great power comes great responsibility.” Uncle Ben? More like Uncle Luke 12:48! “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded, and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be… Read More Top 100 American Movie Quotes of the 21st Century: #39
I have not seen Spider-Man: No Way Home. I do not know what happens in the movie outside of anything they show in a trailer. My guess is that I will not see No Way Home until it comes to my streaming or to my local library. All I know is that this movie has… Read More What We Talk About When We Talk About the Spider-Man: No Way Home Oscar Campaign
You can find the full list of the top 100 blockbusters since 1972 here, as well as an index for other posts in this series. The westerner is one of the most hallowed figures of American moving images, an icon for film and television alike. His virtues (toughness, persistence, wherewithal) and his faults (prejudice, temper,… Read More Top 100 Blockbusters of the Multiplex Era: Cowboys on a New Frontier
Yesterday afternoon, while cheerfully taking my zillionth Twitter constitutional, I found Katey Rich’s tweet in which she noted her involvement in an article for Vanity Fair which named, in the eyes of critics K. Austin Collins and Richard Lawson (and presumably some assists from the rest of VF’s movie staff), the twenty-five most influential movie… Read More Better than Vanity Fair’s 25 Most Influential Movie Scenes
Tim: Matt has an entertaining question to lead us off with today for our discussion of reboots. Matt: Are these Conversations a reboot of the podcast? Tim: Here we are, living in our own little rebooted nightmare where we can no longer just say things, but where we must type all of our thoughts instead.… Read More Baumann and Burch Conversations #9: Reboots
Seeing Things Secondhand 