2018 Webby Award winners (which I help pick)
A brief rundown of some of the film- and TV-related winners…
Laura Linney
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows movie review: shell schlock
Leaden and witless, though it obviously believes there is humor in its loud, chaotic juvenility. It would be an insult to cartoons to call this cartoonish.
Where Are the Women? Mr. Holmes
Women are necessary and present only for how the male protagonist feels about them, and how these feelings motivate him to do things for himself.
Mr. Holmes movie review: the case of the missing myth
It looks lovely and Ian McKellen is amazing, of course, but it’s not very Holmesian. I suspect Holmes himself would snort in derision at its sentimentality.
The Fifth Estate review: WikiWeak
Might be interesting if it had enough passion and guts to take a stand, but ends up in the mushy middle of the road, which surely sprang from a desire to be “fair” and “balanced.”
The Details (review)
A mealy, wan attempt at a black comedy.
Hyde Park on Hudson (London Film Festival review)
Two separate tales of FDR that are certainly worthy of in-depth explorations on their own are mashed together in a way that is ridiculous and which gives both of them a short shift that neither deserves.
The Details (trailer)
I’m gonna hope that perhaps the fantastic cast here will make yet one more tale of a man fucking up endurable.
Arthur Christmas movie review: sufficiently advanced Christmas magic
Is there sweet? Absolutely. But it is cut with funny: sometimes wicked, sometimes manic, often hysterical, always clever funny. And a whole lotta poignant, too.
my week at the movies: ‘Whiteout,’ ‘Crude,’ ‘Bright Star,’ ‘The Other Man’
2nd UPDATE: This week is turning insane. I’ve just added screenings of Jennifer’s Body (opens in the U.S. on September 18, and in the U.K. on November 6) — the Megan Fox-as-not-just-high-school-evil flick — and another upcoming movie that I’ve been asked not to say anything about yet (but I’ll let know more as soon … more…
