The Hitman’s Bodyguard movie review: protection racket
Reluctant-buddy action comedy feels like unfunny, warmed-over ’90s leftovers. Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson look like they’d rather be elsewhere.
Step documentary review: dance into the future
Covers ground — the lives of black teen girls — that mostly goes unexamined onscreen. It couldn’t be fresher or more important. It’s also wildly entertaining.
Overdrive movie review: dumb and dubious
More plot holes than plot, this overly convoluted, deeply stupid Fast and Furious wannabe is crammed with clichés and memorable only when it’s laughable.
new and ongoing dvd & vod releases, US/Can, from Aug 15
A simple listing of new releases and other stuff currently available.
new and ongoing dvd & vod releases, UK/Ire, from Aug 14
A simple listing of new releases and other stuff currently available.
new and ongoing cinema releases, US/Can, from Aug 11
A simple listing of movies opening this week and in continuing release.
new and ongoing cinema releases, UK/Ire, from Aug 09-11
A simple listing of movies opening this week and in continuing release.
2017’s films ranked
I rank films on the fly as I see them during the 2017 awards year.
curated: 25,000 78rpm records now online for your listening pleasure
Available at The Internet Archive.
Atomic Blonde movie review: bland ambition
The living, breathing, bleeding life of the breathtaking fight scenes cannot overcome confusingly twisty spy intrigue and multiple male gazes on the story.
Shin Godzilla (aka Godzilla Resurgence) movie review: big in Japan
Toho’s reboot of its most famous kaiju is, amidst intense monster action, a bitter satire on bureaucracy and a cautionary tale about humanity’s collective folly.
curated: Trump’s state-sponsored propaganda
Real fake news.
curated: RIP Glen Campbell
Anticipated, alas, in the 2014 doc Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me…
Annabelle: Creation movie review: common domestic demon doll
All familiar funhouse spooks telegraphed a mile out, with no spiritual or psychological weight, but with some very young girls terrorized for your entertainment.
curated: men talk more in movies than women do
And The New York Times hears this because a man says it.
curated: Film Crit Hulk on film criticism in the age on intersectionalism
A long read but well worth it.
curated: Ta-Nehisi Coates on why HBO’s ‘Confederate’ is such a bad idea.
So much good stuff here.
curated: boys need Wonder Woman too…
This is part of how we teach boys empathy for girls and women.
curated: Star Trek Continues E09: “What Ships Are For”
I love this series!
Fun Mom Dinner movie review: stay at home, moms
Stereotypes and contrived shenanigans don’t seem to actually offer much catharsis for harried moms seeking escape. And the dads inevitably butt into their me-time.
curated: adorable child thinks Lando Calrissian is someone else…
Awww. (Also: We need more black nerd heroes.)
curated: no, oldster rock stars probably don’t want to be touring…
But even the megastars can’t make a living off album sales anymore.
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets movie review: story of a thousand clichés
There is barely an original thought in this wackadoodle sci-fi panto, just a lot of tiresome passé attitudes skidding among bug-eyed-monster set dressing.
curated: forget HBO’s ‘Confederate’…
Amazon’s Black America is the alt-history show we need…
the paywall is gone
No more pageview counters, no more signing in. Here’s why…
I’m on BBC World Service’s “The Arts Hour” on Sunday July 30th
We’ll be talking about Dunkirk, The Beguiled, The Big Sick, and lots of other artsy stuff.
Landline movie review: love in the time before smartphones
A charming delight in a retro timeslip. Gillian Robespierre and Jenny Slate continue their rampage of creating wonderfully, memorably flawed women onscreen.
The Big Sick movie review: girlfriend in a coma, the rom-com
A rom-com for people who hate rom-coms. A painfully funny movie, full of enrapturing emotion that captures the glorious contradictions of all kinds of love.
Hounds of Love movie review: serial-killer porn
Lurid, pointless thriller teases us with a teenaged girl’s sexual and mortal peril, creating awful suspense around her abuse. Her terror is your titillation.
curated: moviegoing sucks for the vast majority of moviegoers
No wonder everyone is happy staying home with Netflix.
curated: cinematic clichés confirmed to be 5,300 years old with ‘Iceman‘
Really? C’mon…
Birthright: A War Story documentary review: how America hates women
An enraging, essential documentary rundown of all the ways that women’s rights, agency, and bodily autonomy are under attack in the US. It’s not just about abortion.
curated: no, it’s not “ignorant” to ask where the women and the people of color are in ‘Dunkirk‘
No, history is not lily white, or a total sausage party.
Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie review: a brief look at the long and the shorts of it
Sweet, subversive, and absolutely hilarious, at once a snarky superhero sendup and an unironically joyful celebration of friendship and imagination.
Scribe (La mécanique de l’ombre) movie review: all tapped out
This would-be faux-70s paranoid thriller piles on too-obvious intrigue and embarrassing clichés, and lacks suspense, thrills, and a protagonist to care about.
curated: Christopher Nolan hates Netflix
The reason why will shock you! </clickbait>
Dunkirk movie review: the power of purpose
Primal and exhilarating, full of dread and tension. Drops us right into the chaos of war to tell an intimate story about fear and intensity of purpose.
City of Ghosts documentary review: how to tell a story that some don’t want told
A devastating portrait of Syrian citizen journalists, of the sacrifices they make to tell of ISIS occupation, and a cautionary tale for Western culture, too.
curated: there’s a petition to make Doctor Who a man again…
…and it is as hilariously pathetic as you are imagining.
curated: BBC apologizes for talent gender pay gap, but only as it’s about to be made public
So forgive me if I doubt the sincerity of this apology.
curated: the other side of the Kermit’s-voice-got-fired story
Wish I knew which one to believe…
curated: real-life places that belong in a Wes Anderson film
Wonderful.
curated: Kermit the Frog is getting a new voice
And not for any good reason that anyone has offered.
curated: the new Doctor Who is known female Jodie Whittaker
And here is one big reason why it’s important…
Wish Upon movie review: be careful what movies you see about wishes you should be careful about
Simple, yet stupid. A magic box grants a teen wishes… that don’t come free. Apparently they’re not making eighth graders read “The Monkey’s Paw” anymore.
The Women’s Balcony movie review: men, cross women at your peril
A slyly wise, hugely entertaining portrait of an Orthodox Jewish community that loses its joy when a newcomer sows discord. You don’t have to be religious to love it.
Cars 3 movie review: road to nowhere
Three movies in, and this world of sentient driverless cars still creeps me out, and still does nothing except advertise a mountain of related merch for kids.
one big reason why I love ‘House of Cards’ (spoiler: its depiction of women wielding power)
Because it features so many women who are smart, capable, and wield power like men do. But even so, there has not previously been a moment as powerful as this one in S05E07.
curated: a whole buncha critics (including me) on the best movies of 2017 so far
Polled for this was my top 10 so far…
this site is now secure (with https://)
You should barely notice any difference, though…
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