The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966)::rating::5::rating::5::rating::5

T here's a moment early on in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly when Clint Eastwood's panchoed badass strolls into frame, lights a thin cigar, and scowls for the camera. In that instant of savage cool, the Monument Valley Western was forever demolished. John Wayne's false-modest bravado and Jimmy Stewart's hem-haw heroics couldn't have felt…

ByTodd WoffordMarch 29, 20220Comments

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Deep Water (2022)::rating::2

T wo completely different movies live within the soul of Deep Water, and both of them are bad: On the one level, director Adrian Lyne (Fatal Attraction, Indecent Proposal) delivers a humid, trashy dime store thriller, where a good-looking cast throws pouty tantrums and engages in thoroughly mechanical lovemaking. Dive further into the film's allegedly deep water,…

ByTodd WoffordMarch 28, 20220Comments

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Turning Red (2022)::rating::4

T urning Red immediately took my mind to Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, the classic young adult novel by Judy Blume. That book was a frank, poignant tale of the emotional and hormonal difficulties of a girl becoming a woman. Because it key plot points involved Margaret getting her first period and trying to…

ByTodd WoffordMarch 25, 20220Comments

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Zodiac (2007)::rating::4

D avid Fincher's Zodiac effectively encapsulates the massive manhunt for the serial killer who terrorized the San Francisco Bay Area from the 60s through the late 70s. His theatrical villainy would seem borne out of a dime store comic if it weren't so hideously real: Aside from his random acts of butchery, the Zodiac drew a…

ByTodd WoffordMarch 22, 20220Comments

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Rounders (1998)::rating::4

I n his review, Roger Ebert compared Rounders to Rocky, and it's certainly apropos: Over the course of the film, poker player Mike McDermott (Matt Damon) gets demolished in a high-stakes game, staggers away in humiliation, and slowly hones his talent for one last shot at the title. At the same time, Rounders also sent my mind to Bull Durham,…

ByTodd WoffordMarch 15, 20220Comments

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Ranking the Best Picture Nominees (2021)::rating::5

W ith the Oscars fast approaching, it's time to take a closer look at the nominees. It's a boatload of fun to rank things, so let's make a list, shall we? Note: This isn't necessarily based on what I think will win Best Picture, but more how much I connected with each film. And now,…

ByTodd WoffordMarch 13, 20220Comments

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Licorice Pizza (2021)::rating::5

L icorice Pizza is an eccentric, shapeless masterpiece. It follows Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman), a precocious, entrepreneurial teenager, as he hustles his way through the San Fernando Valley, circa 1973. As Gary bounces from one quirky, cockeyed ambition to the next, the plot bounces with him, like a balloon on a string. The only through line…

ByTodd WoffordMarch 10, 20220Comments

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Summer of Soul (2021)::rating::4.5

T he Harlem Cultural Festival was a massive musical happening, spread over six weeks of 1969's sweltering summer. Tens of thousands concert-goers crammed into Harlem's Mount Morris Park to hear an all-star lineup of Black musicians, but they ended up with even more than that: This marked a socio-political crossroads, when Black music took on…

ByTodd WoffordMarch 7, 20220Comments

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The Batman (2022)::rating::3.5

M att Reeves' The Batman is a sweeping, three-hour elegy on just how miserable it is to be Batman. For much of the film, Robert Pattinson's Dark Knight looks on the verge of a nervous breakdown: Black eye makeup streaks his dour face; strands of unkempt hair drape downward in all directions, as if Bruce Wayne just…

ByTodd WoffordMarch 4, 20220Comments

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Drive My Car (2021)::rating::5

F or much of Drive My Car, Misaki (Tōko Miura) chauffeurs Yusuke (Hidetoshi Nishikima) to and from his job as a theater director. He listens to cassettes of his late wife narrating Chekov's Uncle Vanya, and an eerie tranquility emanates from her voice. Misaki drives in silence, with a look of passive melancholia frozen on her…

ByTodd WoffordFebruary 28, 20220Comments