There are few filmmakers with such a mastery of tone, structure and storytelling as Spike Lee. His visual style and technical adventurousness are his hallmarks—but he never lets that style overwhelm the story he’s telling, even when he goes full bananas in films such as “Da Sweet Blood of Jesus” and “Chi-Raq.” Since Lee came […]
Film
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Miles to Go
Wahlberg is still set on being a true American hero
I think most can agree that Mark Wahlberg is a dick. Ignoring his apparently bottomless need to recreate American tragedies, he’s obviously the guy who kicked sand in your face at the beach. This is a man who told Men’s Journal in 2012 that he probably could have stopped one of the 9/11 planes from hitting […]
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Big Screen Creepypasta
The skinny on Slender Man
Making a movie about Slender Man in 2018 is akin to making a biopic about the creators of the Macarena. The time has passed. Don’t get me wrong—filmmakers can still get a ton of mileage from one of the first internet urban legends, but some of the true stories that emerged from the legend are […]
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May the Source Be With You
Public humiliation, ’50s housewives and countless riddlesIn Pod We Trust:Bingeworthy:
Here we are, living though another sweltering hot week while we wait for the sweet release of air conditioning to take us away on its centrally cooled wings. With MoviePass changing its service from unlimited movies to only three movies a month, it’s financially understandable to be a little discriminating when it comes to theatrical […]
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Modern Propaganda
When “Fake News” disguises itself as documentary
It’s somewhat exhausting living in a time in which “Fake News” has become a rallying cry. When it first became a meme, it seemed like a genuinely important distinction to make for people who’ve spent most of their lives swallowing everything the “media” was dishing out. Not only does everyone want to believe the stuff […]
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Collective Childhoods
Middle school will always be the same
If I make something half as beautiful as Bo Burnham’s “Eighth Grade” during the course of my life, I will die a satisfied man. Making a coming-of-age movie can be such a gutsy proposition because of our individualized middle school and high school experiences. “Lady Bird” was such a successful movie because it found the […]
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MoviePass Struggles to Live
Was the service always too good to be true?
We all knew MoviePass was too good to be true, right? As someone who goes to see at least two theatrical movies a week, paying $10 a month to see one movie a day is my dream come true. I was a subscriber to MoviePass back in 2016 when it was $30 a month and […]
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Impossibly Entertaining
Love him or hate him, no one works harder than Cruise
I really want to know when Tom Cruise became the white Jackie Chan. He’s always tried to do as many of his own stunts as he could—training to be a race car driver for “Days of Thunder” or how to expertly handle a motorcycle in “Mission Impossible 2.” Even knowing that he didn’t die shooting these […]
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The Sequalizer
Denzel shoots his way through another bloody mess
I really don’t ask for much when it comes to action movies. Give me some characters to feel invested in and some hot, sweet explosions and gunfights to cheer at and I will go home feeling like my time wasn’t wasted. I don’t care if the dialogue is terrible or if the performances are laughable; just […]
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May the Source Be With You
It’s so hot outside. Not the good kind of hot, but the muggy, all-day sweat fest that is July in Central Oregon. I’m normally an indoor kid to begin with, so I mostly compensate by drinking lots of mint juleps by my air conditioner while listening to podcasts and streaming goofy things from Netflix as […]
