Madame Web movie review: absurdly tangled
A travesty of corporate cynicism. Its desperation to ride Spider-Man’s coattails is pathetic, but its convoluted, coincidence-laden nonsense is duller than you’d imagine: it’s not even so bad it’s fun.
Spider-Man
daily stream: a darkly funny, deliciously feminist revisionist Western
1995’s The Quick and the Dead is on Netflix on both sides of the Atlantic (but leaves the US service soon).
weekend watchlist: sweet, funny, frank pillow talk
Plus apocalyptic adolescence, exasperating planetary levels of bureaucracy, and more… (First published September 10th, 2022, on Substack and Patreon.)
Shazam! movie review: unmarvelous
Nothing matters in this literal adolescent-male power fantasy, a cheesy mishmash of nonsense and low stakes. Anyone who needs at least a bit of meat in their superhero tales will be disappointed.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse movie review: animation gets reanimated
Has a verve rare in big-budget movies at the moment. Fun and fresh and legitimately engages with its source material on the levels of story, visuals, and mythology all at once. It feels like discovering storytelling anew.
Pilgrimage movie review: faith in a time of weaponized religion
Moody, atmospheric, even beautiful in its grimness; a medieval adventure unlike any we’ve seen before, with a sharp attention to psychological and moral realism.
Spider-Man: Homecoming movie review: boys and their alien toys
Thoroughly charming. Spider-Man’s signature light comedy works surprisingly well even as this story is uniquely steeped in the darker Marvel Cinematic Universe.
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.
The Jungle Book movie review: welcome to the jungle
Goes right up to the bleeding edge of cinema to tell a story that is strapping yet simple, and hugely appealing. Disney found a good reason to redo an old film.
99 Homes movie review: the foreclosing of the American dream
A horror story of today’s economy, of America’s heartless culture in which maximizing profit is all. Michael Shannon brings his usual terrifying intensity.
