Jailhouse to Milhouse (2024)
I had a minor resistance walking into Buddy [...]
Comedy
The Out-Laws (2023)
I want to note, right at the top, that my hatred of the new Netflix “comedy” The Out-Laws was not fueled by the fact that it was produced by Adam Sandler’s “Happy Madison” but it helps me understand the heap of unfunny nothingness that followed. Directed by Tyler Spindel with the light touch of a […]
Amanda (2022)
Okay, here’s my conflict. I am the guy who always howling at the moon over my desire to see something new and different. I want to see the work a filmmaker with a particular vision, a particular style that feels new and inventive. That perfectly describes Italian director Carolina Cavalli, but I am conflicted over […]
Flamin’ Hot (2023)
Ever since Everything, Everywhere All At Once won the Oscar for Best Picture, I’ve been begging for more original content – more films that aren’t sequels, prequels, reboots, remakes, reimaginings, or another universe-building collection of cacophonous hoo-ha. I can’t call Flamin’ Hot – the story of the guy who invented Flaming Hot Cheetos – the most original story […]
Beau is Afraid (2023)
In the wake of two grand horror epics, Hereditary and Midsommar, director Ari Aster was asked what he might be doing next. He hinted that he might want to try a comedy – something a bit away from his previous work. That’s probably best. I think, by this point, he’s pretty much sapped the horror […]
One True Loves (2023)
I read a lot of books, and in trying to find something that strikes my fancy, my eyes often glaze across the name Taylor Jenkins Reid. Knowing the genre that she works in – easily digestible romantic hoo-ha with no beef on it whatsoever – I glaze across the covers and generally keep moving. Now, […]
House Party (2023)
It’s a new year – 2023. The holiday season has ended, the parties are over, and the guests have all gone home. The bad news is that the new remake of the 90s sleeper hit House Party is not going to keep the party going. This is one of those movies that defines an empty-house January release. […]
Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul (2022)
In recent days, I’ve been reading Peter Biskind’s “Easy Riders, Raging Bulls,” a gossipy chronicle of the 70s auteur era that brought about a decade of personal filmmaking to a Hollywood couched in reliable formulas. The era would bring about a tapestry of great films like Easy Rider, MASH, Five Easy Pieces, Chinatown and The Last Picture […]
Girl Picture (2022)
I learned early in my life, thanks to the late-great World Book encyclopedia, that there are some parts of the northern world in which the sun never rises above the horizon for several months out the year. The closer that you are to the Arctic Circle, the longer the period will last. This is something […]
