‘Vice’ is satire of the highest order, and like any good satire is equal parts hilarious, disturbing, and ultimately, sobering. Buoyed by incredible performances, writer/director Adam McKay skewers a U.S. power structure defined by a GOP long con perpetrated on the American people, symbolized in the figure of one man, former Vice President and public… Continue reading ‘Vice’ – Is Adam McKay the Satirist of our Time?
Writer/Director M. Night Shyamalan has had one of the most maddening careers of any auteur in recent history. His meteoric rise and subsequent fall out of favor has been well documented, coupled with profiles that have painted him as a narcissistic Hitchcock/Spielberg wannabe, but with 2016’s hit (and sly ‘Unbreakable’ sequel), ‘Split’, it had appeared his back… Continue reading ‘Glass’ – An Interesting, yet Confounding, Critique of Comic Book Culture?
Every year the rules, the very definition of media evolves. As individuals and households continue to cut the cable cord, streaming services and studios are reinventing the nature of content. The lines between movies, television shows, and mini-series continue to blur and morph into something new and exciting. If competition breeds higher quality, the race… Continue reading The Best Television of 2018 – What defines TV in the Streaming Age?
As a character, Spider-Man has been around for a long time and has had multiple iterations on the page. His alter ego Peter Parker has gone through the trials of high school and college, gotten married, had his marriage erased by the devil, died, come back to life, become a billionaire, but always seems… Continue reading ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ – A Comic Book Character Evolves?
This Thanksgiving, everyone is back for ‘Creed II” except for wunderkind writer/director Ryan Coogler. While it would be absurd to say that his skills aren’t missed, luckily he was able to set up a sturdy enough foundation with the characters and the talented actors who play them to help this sequel succeed. Sylvester Stallone may have been… Continue reading ‘Creed II’ – A Sequel to ‘Creed’, ‘Rocky’, or Both?
Seemingly out of nowhere, a little movie about a kid coming of age in the ‘mid90s’ southern California skater subculture previewed, evoking a nostalgia for all those of a certain age who could relate to its smattering of hip-hop and punk/grunge samples, as well as its low-key vibe. Then at the end of the preview, the… Continue reading ‘mid90s’ – Is Jonah Hill’s Ode to Youth Provocative, Profound, or Somewhere in Between?
In hindsight, launching a definitive sequel to 1978’s classic John Carpenter horror film, ‘Halloween’, as it celebrates its 40th(?!) anniversary, is a no-brainer. What isn’t is uber-horror-producer Jason Blum’s ability to get notoriously cantankerous Carpenter’s blessing, match the IP with unlikely filmmakers David Gordon Green and Danny McBride, disavow decades of sequels and re-imaginings,… Continue reading ‘Halloween’ – The Best Slasher Sequel in a Long Time, Possibly Ever?
