I‘m not sure what I expected from “The Farewell”—maybe something slightly schmaltzy, with multiple moments of unearned conflict and manipulative attempts to get the audience to reach for their hankies. That sounds harsh, but I don’t trust tearjerkers. They try so desperately to cash in on my emotional dollars that most of them feel like […]
Film
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May the Source Be with You
August Edition
Look, I realize it’s incredibly impersonal to talk about the weather…especially with you. We’re closer than that. I’d rather find out how your summer has been and whether you’ve been properly hydrating—but I know you have. You’re responsible; I just worry because it’s so hot outside. If you need something to do while cooling down […]
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The Slow and the Curious
Hobbs & Shaw is like bad pizza
I didn’t expect this movie to be smart, but I’m not sure I expected it to be so stupid, either. As an unabashed fan of the “Fast and the Furious” franchise, I’ve been looking forward to “Hobbs & Shaw” all year. Dwayne Johnson’s Luke Hobbs has been the best character in the series since his introduction […]
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California Dreamin’
Tarantino weaves a wondrous fairy tale
I think Quentin Tarantino is a misunderstood filmmaker. He’s an unembarrassed cinephile who regularly comes under attack for his movies containing sexism, racism, brutal violence, a deep-seated foot fetish and enough bad language to make a sailor blush. Yeah, most of his movies contain those things, but they exist to serve a purpose, not to propagate […]
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See Ya Later, Alligator
“Crawl” is a classic throwback to “Jaws”
I‘m a grown-ass man. Yes, I spend too much money on comic books, physical media and having strangers cook me food, but I still feel like I’m more of a grown-up than I was, like, three to five years ago. I’ve seen upward of a thousand movies in theaters over the years—yet, amazingly, I had […]
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Collateral Damage
A great cast helps ‘Lyft’ "Stuber"
*This paragraph should be read in that deep, gravelly voice that the guy who narrates movie trailers uses. Vic Manning is a no-nonsense cop who can’t see much of anything at all. Stu is an Uber driver who’s opening a women-only spinning gym called “Spinsters.” After Vic gets some poorly timed LASIK surgery, he commandeers […]
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The Sommartime Blues
“Midsommar” disturbs to the core
The best horror movies can usually be described in a sentence. A killer shark terrorizes a beachfront community. A knife-wielding masked killer stalks horny teenagers. A young woman gets pregnant with the anti-Christ. They’re simple setups that use that brevity of plot to either wring terror out of the mundane or explore some deeper thematic […]
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May the Source Be With You
July Edition
Holy heck, everyone! We’re right in the middle of it now. Summer is here, with her arms blissfully stretched out, cracking her back and, I dunno, maybe playing some cornhole while eating a brat and sipping a honey-colored microbrew. That sounds like what she’d do. And you too, maybe! But when you’re not doing that, […]
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The Frogurt is Also Cursed
Child’s Play reboot steals too much
I realize that most of the people headed to see the reboot of “Child’s Play” aren’t really going to care about this, but indulge me in a quick rant about the state of remakes, sequels, reboot-quels, pre-makes, re-imaginings and se-boots. The original “Child’s Play” came out in November 1988 and focused on a mortally wounded serial […]
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Trash or Toy?
Toy Story 4 Embraces Existential Despair
Look, Pixar has always been pretty good about finding moments of genuine humanity within their movies about flying houses, sentient toys and cute robots, but they’re masters at unearthing the sadness at the core of the human condition. Animated movies about anthropomorphic toys shouldn’t be so gut wrenchingly honest and upsetting, but here we are. […]
