House of Gucci (2021)::rating::2.5::rating::2.5::rating::2.5

A fter 160 minutes of House of Gucci, I can confidently say I have no idea what the hell I just watched. Is this a gloriously trashy piece of pop art--the Borgias of Melrose Place? Or, are we watching a fumbling stab at legitimate Oscar bait, wherein people get boozy and holler at each other, while mascara…

ByTodd WoffordFebruary 25, 20220Comments

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Encanto (2021)::rating::4.5

A s a parent to a toddler, I can now assess the landscape of children's movies with a much higher degree of confidence. My verdict: From a story standpoint, most animated fare is designed to be disposable at best, and shamelessly lazy at worst. The savvier filmmakers will distract you with millions of colors over…

ByTodd WoffordFebruary 24, 20220Comments

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City of Angels (1998)::rating::2.5

C ity of Angels is one of the strangest romantic films to emerge from the 90s. As a date movie, it's ponderous and wild-eyed to the point of being deliriously goofy. Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan, two of the era's biggest stars, don't work at all as a supernatural couple. Finally, the film capitalizes on the…

ByTodd WoffordFebruary 23, 20220Comments

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Superbad (2007)::rating::4

T een movies centered around graduation are always bittersweet affairs. Look beneath the flow of booze and morally flimsy sexcapades, and you'll find an undercurrent of yearning, regret, and deep anxiety. There's a strange proto-nostalgia, as pseudo-adults desperately try and cup the sand as it slinks down the hourglass. Few films have ever bottled that…

ByTodd WoffordFebruary 18, 20220Comments

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West Side Story (2021)::rating::4.5

A s a lifelong Spielberg aficionado, I'm honestly a little shocked it's taken him this long to tackle a musical. His movies have always relied on elaborate, ambitious shots that are both sweepingly cinematic and mathematically precise expressions of visual lyricism. And that's to say nothing of John Williams' booming motifs bursting from the speakers.…

ByTodd WoffordFebruary 17, 20220Comments

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Nightmare Alley (2021)::rating::3.5

W ithin Guillermo del Toro's ambitious, eccentric Nightmare Alley, two very different movies form an awkward coexistence: For much of its first half, we see the dark, sprawling topography of a Tim Burton fever dream, set during the Great Depression, where carny lifers try and carve out some meager slice of happiness. Gradually, that gnarled…

ByTodd WoffordFebruary 15, 20220Comments

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Infinite (2022)::rating::1

As is, Infinite is just loud, talky, and boring. Just like its titular logo, this movie seems to never end.

ByTodd WoffordFebruary 11, 20220Comments

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CODA (2021)::rating::3.5

T he title for CODA is a fascinating play on words: In the context of this film, its most obvious use is an.acronym--Child of Deaf Adults. But a coda is also a musical term, representing the end of a musical composition, wherein the piece finds its resolve. As a dramedy, CODA centers on a teenage girl's coming of…

ByTodd WoffordFebruary 10, 20220Comments

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Spencer (2021)::rating::3.5

From the opening scene, Spencer announces itself as a sizzling slice of historical fiction. Put another way, this is an imaginative portrait of Princess Diana (Kristen Stewart), painted against the backdrop of real events. While that approach does absolve the film from having to tether itself to the truth, Spencer still riffs on the same Diana…

ByTodd WoffordFebruary 5, 20220Comments

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As Good as It Gets (1997)::rating::3.5

A s Good as It Gets provokes a dilemma I've never encountered before: On one hand, it blazes a trail through difficult issues, such as OCD and homophobia, places Hollywood had long feared to tread. Over on the flip side, the filmmakers create Melvin Udall (Jack Nicholson), a misanthropic monster, to use as a lighting rod for…

ByTodd WoffordFebruary 2, 20220Comments