Twister (1996)::rating::3.5::rating::3.5::rating::3.5

T wister takes the heart and soul of a rickety B-movie and builds the body of a big, lavish blockbuster around it. Think about it: You've got Jan de Bont (Speed) directing, Steven Spielberg (Gremlins) producing, and a solid cast of name actors. (Any scene with Helen Hunt and Philip Seymour Hoffman features two Oscar…

ByTodd WoffordAugust 6, 20240Comments

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Baby Driver (2017)::rating::4

E dgar Wright's Baby Driver takes a page from Quentin Tarantino and elevates its soundtrack to a full-on supporting character. Ansel Elgort's Baby suffers from tinnitus and medicates himself with an iPod and headphones. He knows his music, as does everyone around him. That means we get riffs on everyone from Barbra Streisand to Beck, and a…

ByTodd WoffordJuly 25, 20240Comments

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The Natural (1984)::rating::3.5

T he Natural takes all the mythologies and superstitions that have attached themselves to baseball and bundles them into one infectiously silly package. For this story, the game takes on an unknowable magic. Its heroes have supernatural talent; villains lurk and scowl in the shadows. This means your enjoyment of this film will entirely hinge…

ByTodd WoffordJuly 23, 20240Comments

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Stop Making Sense (1984)::rating::5

A s musical documentaries go, none are more grippingly intimate than Stop Making Sense. The live audience exists as an invisible force, somewhere in the darkness beyond the stage. For most of the film, we bound about the stage with Talking Heads as they dance, stumble, and thrash to their own pulsating music. That energy flows…

ByTodd WoffordJuly 17, 20240Comments

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Independence Day (1996)::rating::3

M ake no mistake: Independence Day is one of those movies that should have a high resistance to criticism. After all, it's junk-food entertainment of the first order--blustery, big-budget silliness. I mean, there's Randy Quaid, staggering around like Otis from Andy Griffith. And, you've got President Bill Pullman rallying the troops with the fury of…

ByTodd WoffordJuly 3, 20240Comments

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Stand by Me (1986)::rating::3.5

M ore than any coming-of-age movie, Stand by Me is filled with a slow, billowing sense of dread. Characters frequently find themselves on the run from some approaching doom, where it comes in the form of chugging trains, howling coyotes, or an attack dog who lives to sic balls. Of course, these kids are really running from something…

ByTodd WoffordJune 26, 20240Comments

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The Way Way Back (2013)::rating::3.5

T he Way Way Back takes an exhausted subgenre, the Coming of Age dramedy, and supercharges it with a high-powered cast and a well-crafted screenplay. This film may not say anything new, but at least it's well-spoken. As a result, The Way Way Back offers moments of sly humor and moving drama, with bits of sparkling greatness…

ByTodd WoffordJune 20, 20240Comments

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Dazed and Confused (1993)::rating::5

D azed and Confused contains one of my favorite moments in all of movie history. It's late in the film, and if you blink, it could slip by: Randall "Pink" Floyd (Jason London), a small-town quarterback stud, is splitting a midnight blunt with his buds at the 50-yard line. Pink spends the movie in a malaise,…

ByTodd WoffordJune 13, 20240Comments

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American Fiction (2023)::rating::4

A merican Fiction is pulled in so many different directions by conflicting emotions and competing genres, it's a wonder that satisfying story emerges at all. Most prominently, we have a film of frustration, a satirical rant about Black representation in modern fiction. Beneath that lies a gooey center, in which a growly curmudgeon finds his…

ByTodd WoffordMay 23, 20240Comments

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Dr. Strangelove (1964)::rating::5

D r. Strangelove is one of the greatest examples of telling truth to power in all of cinema. For 94 glorious minutes, Stanley Kubrick and his co-conspirators use comedy to permanently prove that the entrenched dogmas of the Cold War were, you know, stupid. Characters in this film speak of "missile superiority" and "mutually assured destruction" with…

ByTodd WoffordMay 22, 20240Comments