curated cinema: the fear and rage of being human
2016’s A Monster Calls is streaming on Prime on both sides of the Atlantic.
Liam Neeson
daily stream: a society of the snow… with wolves
2012’s The Grey is on Max in the US, Prime in the UK.
loaded question: what young actor (of any gender) working today could be the next great action star?
I honestly cannot think of anyone who could carry on the tradition of the 80s stars. The babies of the current crop of whom we might consider up-and-coming action stars are not that young…
daily stream: one reason to marry your best friend…
2019’s Ordinary Love is new on Max in the US, on Prime in the UK.
weekend watchlist: the plot to trick Hitler
Plus grownup romance and a bland dystopia, and more. (First published May 21st, 2022, on Substack and Patreon.)
Blacklight movie review: turn it off
Feels less like a movie than it does a hostage video. Poor Liam Neeson isn’t trying to hide how exhausted and trapped he is in his cinematic hamster wheel of cheap, violent revenge thrillers. It’s sad.
7500 movie review: never your in-flight movie
Mundanity builds to almost unbearable tension, but this isn’t an action movie. It’s a drama grounded in emotional realism thanks to the Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s intense empathy and vulnerable humanity.
Ordinary Love movie review: marriage story
A Cancer Movie but not a horror story. Funny, moving, hopeful; an intimate portrait of a couple who know how to support each other and why that matters. Oh, and it’s also a love letter to the NHS.
Cold Pursuit movie review: hot mess
The latest Liam Neeson revenge fantasy simply makes no sense even before you get to the tedious action, undeveloped characters, and stubborn racism and sexism. A rancid excuse for a thriller.
movies for the resistance: Schindler’s List
The devastating cultural experience Spielberg’s masterpiece presented to us 25 years ago felt then like a piece of history. Today, from the bowels of 2018, it feels like a warning, a premonition, a harbinger.
