The 95th Academy Awards Race: Best Original Song
The Nominees are . . . • "Lift Me [...]
Sci-Fi/Fantasty
Spiderhead (2022)
Nothing thrills me like science fiction about ideas, and very little frustrates me like seeing those ideas presented in a provoking way and then run through routine action movie cliches. Such is the problem with Netflix’s Spiderhead a movie that boasts a rising young director in Joseph Kosinsky (fresh off of Top Gun: Maverick) and a […]
Obi-Wan Kenobi, the first step into a . . . larger world?
I do not step into a new Star Wars property with light feet. I’m an original fan, Class of ’77. In fact, I’m a super-fan, as is my wife. We’re crazy for this stuff. You should see our living room. The occasion of anything new always comes with a bit of excitement, and the new […]
Dual (2022)
Up to this point, I have been like many in regards to actress Karen Gillian in that I have only known her for her (as of this writing) four appearances in the MCU as Nebula, the tortured quasi-villainous sister to Gamora. Given the dark, conflicted nature of that role, I had wondered what else she […]
Black Crab (2022)
When I first saw the name Black Crab on the list of films coming to Netflix in March, my mind immediately formed an idea of what it might be. I imagined a coming-of-age story of a poor kid growing up slowing in the Louisiana bayou with memories of his Gran-Momma cookin’ up some shrimp and […]
Dune: Part One (2021)
I had no reason to ever think that anyone could bring about a film version of Frank Herbert’s “Dune” that would do justice to his work. It’s too bulky, too complicated, too over-stuffed. There are too many things that are tempting to leave out in favor of longer action scenes. It might almost seem unfilmable. […]
The Midnight Sky (2020)
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I have not been able to go to movie theaters nor film festivals. So now, with the help of award-season screeners, this month I am catching up. What happened to George Clooney? More than ten years ago he started his directorial career with two brilliant bio-pics, Confessions of a Dangerous […]
Aquaman (2018)
Aquaman is quite possibly the most ridiculous big-budget movie that I’ve seen in at least the last five years and I swear I mean that with affection. Yes, it is ridiculous but in a common-sense sort of way. I mean, this is the the story of a displaced half-human, half-Atlantean ruler of an undersea kingdom […]
Bird Box (2018)
Is Bird Box the victim of bad timing? Watching the movie today on Netflix, I kept wondering if my opinion might have been so sour if the movie hadn’t come out in the shadow of other, better end-of-the world thrillers from 2018 like A Quiet Place, Heredity and Annihilation. Right now, when conversation turns to […]
