daily scream: shorn of the dead
2007’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is on Paramount+ in the US, Prime in the UK.
Tim Burton
weekend watchlist: coming to terms with grief personal and societal
Plus badass women and damned dirty apes… (First published April 30th, 2022, on Substack and Patreon.)
The Batman movie review: to bat, or not to bat
No snark, no spandex pantomime spectacle. Just noir mystery, Pattinson’s sad recluse a detective in a cesspit of corruption. Relentlessly grim, all darkness and despair, not escapist but of our time.
Dumbo (2019) movie review: you will not believe an elephant can fly
The most soulless of the live-action Disney remakes yet, weighted down by too many blah characters, too much convoluted plot, unconvincing CGI, and a message that doesn’t say what it thinks it does.
War for the Planet of the Apes movie review: empathy for the ape
A triumph of science fiction storytelling: a sweeping tale of mythological scope told with astonishing FX wizardry that brings emotion and intelligence to nonhuman people.
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children movie review: infodump, the movie
Relentlessly dull. A tour of a strange world and “characters” little more than their “peculiar” abilities isn’t enough to whip up fantastical excitement.
Alice Through the Looking Glass movie review: a mirror cracked
Believes six impossible things — like implausible character motivations, or big emotions — because they’re in the script, without bothering to earn them.
Big Eyes movie review: painted into a corner
A bitter feminist fairy tale about a woman betrayed by love and trust and crafted by culture to be vulnerable to the charms of a con-artist husband.
The Dressmaker movie review: haute couture as a tragicomic weapon
So entertaining, so unexpected, so wonderfully oddball, so damn good. Witty genre-busting simmering with pathos, humor, and calamity.
London photo: Tim Burton and Christoph Waltz at a Big Eyes Q&A
Tim Burton has a new flick this holiday season…
