mother! movie review: from WTF to STFU
Darren Aronofsky’s self-pitying cinematic rending of garments is repulsive, transparent, and pointless. A grotesquely wrapped gift box of utter banality.
reviews
It movie review: a series of unfortunate events
The Goonies, Stand by Me, and Poltergeist went into a blender with a pinch of E.T. and John Hughes to smush into a mess of retro 80s mush.
The Vault movie review: where the money is haunted
Psychologically risible and paranormally inconsistent heist horror gives us not a single character to like or root for, or even to cheer dying.
Ingrid Goes West movie review: an antisocial-media story
Bitter, snide, and ultimately brutal, exactly the movie about social media we deserve; a satire that is barely satirical. Aubrey Plaza is hashtag savage.
The Limehouse Golem movie review: riffing on the Ripper
Lush sensationalism and Dickensian social justice collide in 1880s London, and if there isn’t quite enough of either, it’s still a slice of satisfying gothic horror.
God’s Own Country movie review: the cultivation of love
A wonderful portrait of life in a harsh, lonely place, and of romance as a prompt for personal growth and changing traditions. Raises the bar for British indies.
Detroit movie review: racism 101 for white people
Tense, gripping, enraging, but only about things that black Americans already know. This is a primer about racism for white people, and we must pay attention.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day 3D movie review: he said he’d be back…
An action masterpiece newly remastered in gorgeous 4K (and rejiggered for superfluous 3D) reveals how fresh it remains not only technically but thematically.
Logan Lucky movie review: a waste of a heist
Fun enough and diverting enough while you’re in the middle of it, but hints of something much richer and more satisfying dangle just out of its reach.
California Typewriter documentary review: a qwerty little passion
A winsome spell of romance and nostalgia and adorably dorky passion. This is not a portrait of people with an odd hobby: it is a hymn to mechanical beauty.
