You either like Wes Anderson or you don’t. His critics use words like “twee,” “smug” and “calculated” to describe his very distinct visual style; filled to bursting with formal compositions and meticulously detailed frames…and they’re not really wrong. His films are like dioramas where the audience is invited to sit outside and marvel, without necessarily […]
Film
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Because We Got High
Stoner movies for a lazy 4/20
There’s a lot going on during 4/20. Obviously, it’s the day we celebrate all things marijuana, but it’s also the anniversary of the date of the first known performance of “Macbeth,” the day the NFL legalized coaching from the bench, the Columbine High School massacre and my dad’s birthday (Happy Birthday, David!) There’s a ton […]
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Hush
“A Quiet Place” will get you
I wasn’t really looking forward to seeing “A Quiet Place” in the theater. Don’t get me wrong, I was hyped for it, but it seems like for half the movies, the theaters are half-full with people treating the experience like they’re in their living rooms… answering a ringing phone, carrying on conversations or loudly reacting to […]
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May the Source Be With You
What to binge this week: Russian state security, killer robots and the genius of Donald Glover
There are so many cool things happening in pop culture right now, or in the next few weeks, that it’s almost ridiculous. The year 2018 has already had several fantastic movies (“A Quiet Place,” “The Death of Stalin”) and shows (“Atlanta” and “The Terror”), but it’s not even the tip of the iceberg when it […]
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Game On
“Ready Player One” is a burst of pop culture nostalgia
My name is Jared Rasic and I’ve been collecting comic books and movies since 1986. I was beaten up in Catholic school and relentlessly mocked in public school for being a fat geek who should put down the books and pick up a basketball. Over the last decade, geek culture left the basement and became […]
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Political Animals
Sometimes all you can do is laugh
“The Death of Stalin” may well be the hardest you will ever laugh at mass murder. I know that sounds wrong, but go with me for a minute. By taking the death of the brutal autocrat and then crafting a timely political satire around it, filmmaker Armando Iannucci once again manages to create belly laughs […]
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Unsane in the Membrane
Soderbergh once again blazes the trail
Steven Soderbergh is having one hell of a retirement. After announcing his intention to quit directing following “Magic Mike” and “Side Effects,” he directed, edited, produced and shot the insanely brilliant Cinemax show, “The Knick,” and HBO’s interactive puzzle series, “Mosaic.” He then instantly dove back into film with the Liberace biopic “Behind the Candelabra,” […]
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PewPewPew
Robots vs. monsters means we all win
I‘m a simple man, but I take pleasure in some very specific cinematic delights. I love giant, Godzilla-esque kaiju monsters. I also love several-hundred-feet-tall, mech-suited robots. So back when visionary director Guillermo del Toro announced he was making a movie about huge alien sea monsters entering our world through an inter-dimensional portal on the bottom […]
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Tomb with a View
Vikander saves the day
I don’t think I’ve ever had a video game spoil a movie for me. I’ve certainly read plenty of books that colored my enjoyment of their film adaptations, but video game movies are an entirely different beast. Terrible adaptations such as “Super Mario Brothers,” “Street Fighter” or “Assassin’s Creed” took just a few plot points from […]
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Wild Horses
“Thoroughbreds” changes the rules of the race
Lily is a teenage girl who lives with her unnamed mother and stepfather, Mark, in his ornate and massive mansion. Lily hates Mark, who rapidly alternates between barely restrained hostility and cold disdain for her. He’s a fitness freak with a rowing machine upstairs in his bedroom, which sounds like a churning and anxious stomach, […]
