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.)
Matthew Macfadyen
The Assistant movie review: the realities of being a girl
A quietly brutal film that shows the dark underbelly of an industry — of a world — dominated by often predatory straight white men. Could be an eye-opener on a larger scale… if only we listen.
The Current War movie review: fathers of invention, in conflict
An electrifying style lights up this geek adventure of the intersections between science, culture, and capitalism in the 19th-century battle to power our world. Cumberbatch and Shannon are brilliant.
Lost in Karastan movie review: lost indeed
Snarky humor and a wonderfully put-upon Matthew Macfadyen are the best reasons to see a satire that ultimately seems to forget where it was heading.
Anna Karenina (review)
There is no pretense that we’re getting a realistic depiction of late-19th-century Russia. Director Joe Wright isn’t merely crafting a metaphor about the social structures under which we all live: he’s underscoring the artificiality of cinema itself.
The Three Musketeers (review)
It is leaden where it should be light. It is graceless and charmless. It reels from the painful banter. It is the epitome of empty soulless corporate filmmaking.
The Three Musketeers (trailer)
In 3D. Just like Alexandre Dumas intended.
cinematic roots of: ‘Life as We Know It’
In Life as We Know It, Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel can’t stand each other, but agree to raise the orphaned child of their friends anyway, because an environment of seething resentment and hatred is hardly different from what other kids grow up in. This flick sprang from (among other films)…
Robin Hood (review)
How can it be that my geeky little heart has been ripped from my chest and my geeky little soul crushed underfoot like so much spilled popcorn on the floor of the multiplex? That wasn’t supposed to happen. Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott’s *Robin Hood* was supposed to be *awesome.*
Death at a Funeral (review)
Assumes that the viewer is a complete and utter fucking moron…
