Cinemavino — Episode 13: The King We All Deserve::rating::0::rating::0::rating::0

Our discussion this week involves what cast and crew we'd love to hang with behind the scenes. Put another way, who would we want to have a beer (or two) with? Now that I think about it, I'd like to change my answer to Babe. I think that little hog and I would just laugh and…

ByTodd WoffordMarch 6, 20190Comments

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Free Solo (2018)::rating::4

M idway through Free Solo, rock climber Alex Honnold goes in for a brain scan. Honnold is training to scale the granite face of Yosemite's El Capitan, without the benefit of ropes or harnesses. A curious doctor pours over the test results, wondering if Honnold's singular determination and fearlessness can be pinpointed by science. Sure enough,…

ByTodd WoffordMarch 5, 20190Comments

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Greta (2019)::rating::3

T he script for Greta seems a lot like a Frankenstein golem, a lumbering construct of thrillers plucked from the $1 DVD bin of a Walmart: Fatal Attraction, Psycho, Single White Female, and many others get stitched together, forming a brand new monster in the process. The movie that sits up and lurches off the table may…

ByTodd WoffordMarch 2, 20190Comments

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How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019)::rating::3.5

M ost modern animated movies have slowly slipped into the same unambitious groove occupied by elevator music. The same adjectives could be sprinkled onto any of them, like pepper onto rice cakes: Most are pretty, well-made, innocuous, and completely forgettable. The How to Train Your Dragon franchise has always been a notch above the rest, mainly because…

ByTodd WoffordMarch 2, 20190Comments

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Cinemavino — Episode 12: Anyway, Roma was Really Good::rating::0

I 've always thought the Oscars are more fun to talk about than they are to watch. Like sports awards, the water cooler debate is just part of it all. So...a mini-episode about the Academy Awards seemed like a Jim Dandy idea. The only problem is we did it on the back end…

ByTodd WoffordMarch 1, 20190Comments

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Fighting with My Family (2019)::rating::3.5

F ighting with My Family takes the sweaty, spandexed bravado of professional wrestling and somehow spins it into a sugary, feel-good movie. It's surprising to find out this story has some basis in fact, and even more startling that everything works as well it does. With its underdog heroine, tough-love mentor, and hissable villains, Fighting With My…

ByTodd WoffordFebruary 27, 20190Comments

The Drink Menu The Podcast

Cinemavino – Episode 11: Bruce Willis Needs a Breath Mint::rating::0

F or this episode, Travis, Taylor, and I discuss a few underrated movies and actors, whilst enjoying a little underrated wine: The Beaujolais region of France features some delicious wine, made from the Gamay grape. It doesn't get nearly the attention it deserve, so we're gonna shine a light on it. This is Domaine de la…

ByTodd WoffordFebruary 24, 20190Comments

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RBG (2018)::rating::4

L ate in RBG, we see a telling photograph of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sandra Day O'Connor, the first two women appointed to the United States Supreme Court. They sit in an opulent chamber, pleasant and prim, surrounded by imposing sculptures and paintings of male jurists. These starchy old men, replete with bushy mustaches and flowing…

ByTodd WoffordFebruary 22, 20190Comments

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2019 Oscar Picks::rating::0

"T his is the 51st Academy Awards," said that evening's host, Johnny Carson. "Two hours of sparkling entertainment spread over a four-hour show." No one has ever described cinema's biggest night with such dry, succinct brilliance. It seems every minute of glamour or grippingly candid emotion gets matched with another minute of bloated, boring…

ByTodd WoffordFebruary 20, 20190Comments

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Alita: Battle Angel (2019)::rating::3.5

All the expansive world-building in Alita: Battle Angel stands as the film's greatest strength and its greatest weakness. James Cameron (co-writer/producer) and Robert Rodriguez (director) deliver a sprawling, digital landscape that boggles the mind in both its grandeur and intensive attention to every last visual detail. Story-wise, so much table-setting happens in this movie that it…

ByTodd WoffordFebruary 15, 20190Comments