The Batman movie review: to bat, or not to bat
No snark, no spandex pantomime spectacle. Just noir mystery, Pattinson’s sad recluse a detective in a cesspit of corruption. Relentlessly grim, all darkness and despair, not escapist but of our time.
Year: 2022
The Burning Sea (Nordsjøen) movie review: nightmare (fossil) fuel
Not terribly disastrous… until it is. Then movie-movie melodrama gives way to eco-cataclysm and new realms of planetary existential nightmare. I cannot recall a movie’s ending haunting me this much.
loaded question: have apocalyptic movies lulled us into a false sense of security about climate change?
What would human civilization look like after a billions-dead catastrophe? “End of the world” movies almost universally fail to confront that. Do we need to do better?
social sharing links have changed
You’re sharing my reviews on Twitter and sending links to your mom by email, right? Of course you are! And now you’ll see that the way you do that has changed a little.
a documentary about Ukraine that Putin probably should have watched
If you need a bit of background on the invasion of Ukraine by Russia this week, the Netflix documentary Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom is absolutely essential and unmissable.
Cyrano movie review: out of tune
Peter Dinklage is wonderful, but this feels like a suggestion of a movie, not an actual one. It’s not romantic; there’s no humor, no absurdity. Its unpleasantness is as puzzling as it is inescapable.
Disqus is history!
Feel free to use this post to play around with the new commenting system, and please do report any weird behavior or bugs you run into.
loaded question: which celebrity would you cast as which current or historical figure in a biopic?
In honor of Daniel Radcliffe as Weird Al Yankovic. Yes, this is happening.
Dog movie review: magic mutt
Wounded veterans in reluctant-buddy road trip. Allegedly a comedy, but I don’t see much evidence for that. The schmaltz may be slightly more convincing than the comedy, but it’s a low bar to get over.
Death on the Nile movie review: Kenneth Branagh steps in the same river twice
This should be salacious! We should revel in the seething jealousy and simmering resentments! But there’s not much suspense or engagement in waiting for someone to die, nor in finding out whodunnit.
