The Legend of Tarzan and Free State of Jones movies review: enough with the white saviors
Filtering other people’s stories through the eyes of white men is tedious and offensive, and it feels like a desperate hedge against fresh perspectives.
1870s
Jane Got a Gun movie review: a woman’s view on the Old West
A gritty woman’s perspective on tropes of the western genre, a lean action drama that is sparse yet sympathetic, and laconic but simmers with deep emotion.
The Hateful Eight movie review: all hat, no cattle
Inexcusably self-indulgent. Tarantino gratifies his enormous self-love and his amusement at his own genius at the expense of all else.
Far from the Madding Crowd movie review: a woman’s choices
Ridiculously romantic in all the best ways, and more modern, more progressive, and even just plain more grownup that half the movies thrown at us today.
Around the World in 80 Days (review)
Around the World in 80 Days is a huge, leisurely production, chock full of starry cameos and astounding scenery. There’s not really much of a plot, and the characters are little more than cardboard, but the whole point of this movie is to linger with Fogg and Passepartout as they drink in the beautiful countryside and exotic cities as they float languorously by. This is what Technicolor and 70mm prints were invented for.
