Francois Truffaut famously stated: “There is no such thing as an anti-war film.” In essence, what he was getting at is that any subject, when filmed and put on screen for viewers, inherently becomes glamorized and entertaining, and the filmmaker is therefore unavoidably subverted into creating entertainment out of the very thing which they set […]
Cuties (Mignonnes)
September 9, 2021 by
Film Title
CutiesSynopsis
Eleven year-olds, Dude
Director
Maimouna DoucoureCast
Fathia Youssouf
Medina El Aidi-Azouni
Esther Gohourou
Ilanah Cami-Goursolas
Spoiler Alert! Some Thoughts on Twist Endings
August 22, 2021 by
Since M. Night Shyamalan’s much ballyhooed 1999 feature The Sixth Sense, twist endings have gotten something of a bad rap, and usually with good reason. After all, in many cases they are a cheap way to add excitement to the climax of an otherwise dull story. Sometimes they are a cop-out, negating all emotional involvement […]
The Art of Darkness: Apocalypse Now & Full Metal Jacket
June 2, 2021 by
“War is hell,” the cliche’ proclaims, but it seems to be entertaining hell. Along with other ghastly subjects such as murder and vampirism, war ranks among the most popular and commonly used subject matter of filmed entertainment, and no war has yielded more or better films than the one in Vietnam between 1955 and 1975. […]
The Help
April 11, 2021 by
Film Title
The HelpSynopsis
How to make pie for white supremacists
Director
Tate TaylorCast
Emma Stone
Viola Davis
Octavia Spencer
Bryce Dallas Howard
Cicely Tyson
Sissy Spacek
Allison Janney
The Help is a lot like Crash, The Blind Side, and other presumably well-meaning but largely tone-deaf movies about race that don’t happen to star Sandra Bullock (as a longtime devotee of both Demolition Man and The Bus That Couldn’t Slow Down, I have to believe sweet Sandy’s heart is in the right place). However […]
The White Tiger
April 2, 2021 by
Film Title
The White TigerSynopsis
An Indian driver tries to use all his wits to escape poverty
Director
Ramin BahraniCast
Adarsh Gourav
Rajkummer Rao
Priyanna Chopra
Vedant Sinha
Kamlesh Gill
Satish Kumar
“Do we loathe our masters behind a facade of loving, or do we love our masters behind a facade of loathing?” Balram It is fitting that the first words heard in The White Tiger are spoken by Jay-Z. On the soundtrack as the movie begins is “Beware of the Boys,” Jay’s collaboration with British Indian […]
I, Frankenstein (2014)
March 27, 2021 by
Film Title
I, FrankensteinSynopsis
We are bored
Director
Stuart BeattieCast
Aaron Eckhart
Yvonne Strahovski
Miranda Otto
Bill NIghy
Aden Young
Kevin Grevioux
The longer you watch I, Frankenstein, the harder it is to believe that it is an actual theatrical feature and not just a bad TV movie made for the Syfy channel. Despite big-name, reliably good actors like Aaron Eckhart, Bill Nighy, and Miranda Otto, and special effects that, at their best, at least look like […]
Uplift the Race: 3 Spike Lee Joints
February 20, 2021 by
For over 30 years now, ever since his debut feature She’s Gotta Have It in 1986, Spike Lee has been one of the most innovative and provocative filmmakers of our time. As expressed numerous times throughout his many films, Lee’s highest goal is to “wake up” and uplift all oppressed and deluded people, but he […]
Baby’s Day Out
February 13, 2021 by
Film Title
Baby's Day OutSynopsis
A kidnapped kid is lost. Who cares?
Director
Patrick Read JohnsonCast
A baby
Another baby
A bunch of other people we've never heard of
As anyone who has read my in-depth review of Beethoven knows, family movies from the 1990s are often covert founts of darkness and despair, sometimes to the point that it is nigh impossible to see them any other way. Another great example of this curious phenomenon is the 1994 film Baby’s Day Out, which depicts […]
Birdemic: Shock And Terror
February 10, 2021 by
Film Title
Birdemic: Shock and TerrorSynopsis
An inept attempt at cashing in on Hitchcock’s masterpiece.
Director
James NguyenCast
Alan Bagh
Whitney Moore
Tipi Hedren (archive footage)
Other random people off the street
Birdemic: Shock and Terror was clearly made without the benefit of anyone who knew absolutely anything about filmmaking within a hundred yards of the set. Witness production values and acting that make Tommy Wiseau’s notorious 2003 classic The Room look like a legitimate masterpiece. Witness sound editing and mixing apparently done by a pair of […]
Beethoven (1992)
February 5, 2021 by
Synopsis
A slobbering St. Bernard must be saved from the perils of a nefarious Vet who is determined to experiment on animals
Director
Brian LevantCast
A slobbering St. Bernard Dog
A bunch of other people
Despite evidence to the contrary, much of it written by me, I am not a monster. Like virtually any human being, I have certainly been known to find dogs charming, but I am happy the building in which I live only allows cats because I would rather see my neighbors’ pets than hear them, and […]
