Jake Johnson has been simmering just under Hollywood’s A-list. He certainly has his fan base, and there is a familiarity (oh, that guy!), but he doesn’t yet command a summer hit. Like, say, Philip Seymour Hoffman, who seemingly appeared in every cool kid movie for a decade before finally breaking into public knowledge as a […]
In one of Straight Outta Compton‘s most powerful shots, two men walk toward a police line. Held between them are a blue and a red bandana, knotted together, signifying unity in the face of a common enemy. It’s part of a scene that recreates the chaos of the Rodney King riots, the political event that […]
Within the first two minutes of Cartel Land, the quality and moral depth of the film is evident. It is a nighttime scene as several men, presumably Mexican, unload ingredients from a truck and begin to cook meth in smoking drum barrels. At first, there is nothing terribly novel about the scene; a man, masked […]
Remember the joke Woody Allen tells in Annie Hall about the two old women in the Catskills? The gist is this: One woman complains that the food is terrible, the other replies, “I know, such small portions.” Allen’s films in this later part of his career are so innocuous, so wisplike, so slight, that while […]
From a distance, it’s hard to tell how much celebrity suffering is actually theater. Asif Kapadia’s shattering documentary Amy certainly qualifies as theater in its own right, piecing together great amounts of archival, never-before-seen video footage of late musician Amy Winehouse with dramatic effectiveness. Much of Kapadia’s film is narrated by the star herself, inter-spliced […]
Here’s a fun drinking game to play while watching, oh, ANY romantic comedy: Take a sip whenever you see (1) a girl reporter in the big city, who, despite working in print media, you never see actually working (or, okay, crying because her freelance check is late), (2) shots of the New York City skyline […]
If nothing else, The Connection looks gorgeous—set in Marseille in the late ’70s and early ’80s, and shot on 35mm, it’s a movie that revels in its time and place, with Laurent Tangy’s sun-dappled cinematography rolling in dusky yellows, browns, and blues. And when those visuals are paired up with a few select songs from […]
Sports often are the best diplomacy, from ping pong in 1971 opening a long-closed door between the United States and China, to more recently, the invitation to North Korea to join the World Cup soccer games. Add to that list: mountain biking in Iran. Iran is one of the most isolated countries in the world. […]
Magic Mike XXL: The feminist male stripper movie you’ve been waiting for There’s a phenomenon in sequels: They need to trade off of the success of the first film, so they need a similar story. But they also have to at least pretend to offer something new. In dance, or a cappella, or cheerleading movies, […]
“Elegant” may not be the first word that springs to mind when it comes to heavily armed Austrian cyborgs, but in the case of the original Terminator, it fits. Even some 30 years down the pipe, James Cameron’s nitro-burning B-movie remains a witty marvel of construction, smuggling some surprisingly resonant themes among its carnage and—possibly […]
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