Latest Archives

On the Basis of Sex (2018)::rating::3::rating::3::rating::3

"Politics is the strong and slow boring of hard boards," Max Weber once observed, although the same could be said for any challenge to the cultural or legal status quo.…

Glass (2019)::rating::2.5

After 20-plus years of filmmaking, the M. Night Shyamalan template for storytelling has become quite clear: He spends around 100 minutes carefully setting a table with plates, glasses, candles, and…

Latest The Archive

The Top Ten Movies for 2018::rating::0

For the first time since high school, I've made an effort to see just about every movie out there. I didn't quite bat 1.000, but I'm comfortable with a belated…

Greatest Latest

If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)::rating::5

"I hope that nobody has ever had to look at anybody they love through glass." These words open If Beale Street Could Talk, with every syllable coated in aching, anguished sadness.…

The Upside (2018)::rating::2.5

As a young dweeb, I found great joy in flipping to the "How to Increase Your Word Power" Section of a Reader's Digest. It's truly an invaluable tool for infusing your…

Greatest Latest

They Shall Not Grow Old (2018)::rating::5

The old saying goes that, "war is long periods of tedium punctuated by moments of sheer terror." No film in recent memory captures that contrast with more crystalline ferocity than…

Latest The Archive

Vice (2018)::rating::3.5

When offered the vice presidency, Daniel Webster was succinct: "I do not propose to be buried until I am dead." Vice, Adam McKay's scorching dramedy, posits that Dick Cheney took…

Bumblebee makes a wise move by chucking the mechanical three-ring circus of past Transformers films into the dumpster. In place of all that clunking cacophony we get something surprising: A fun, patiently-paced…

Aquaman (2018)::rating::3.5

Aquaman takes 100 minutes worth of rollicking escapism and dilutes it into 145 minutes worth of movie. At some point, all the subplots and flashbacks and supporting characters and mythic…