The narrative being constructed by critics and fandom right now is that of a battle between DC Comics’ Extended Cinematic Universe (DCEU) and the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). While Marvel’s started back in 2008 with the first “Iron Man” film and is plotted through 2019’s “Avengers: Infinity War – Part 2,” DC is still in […]
Movie
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Risky Business
“Nerve” is a movie in search of a soul
Oh, “Nerve,” you had so much promise, and you squandered it so hard. Taking cues from the very simple premise of David Fincher’s under-appreciated 1997 thriller, “The Game,” “Nerve” wants to be so many different things. It’s a teen romance, a cyber thriller, a horror movie, a parable about social media and a finger wagging […]
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Chasin’ Bourne
Matt Damon vs. the law of diminishing returns
Matt Damon had already achieved some measure of success by the time “The Bourne Identity” was released in 2002, but it definitely bumped him from actor to movie star. “Good Will Hunting” (1997) put him on the map. “Dogma” and “The Talented Mr. Ripley” gave him cred, and “Oceans Eleven” made him “Hollywood,” but “Bourne” […]
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Over the Garden Wall
“Swiss Army Man” unfolds expertly
“Swiss Army Man” came out of the Sundance Film Festival amid multiple walkouts, critically derided as Daniel Radcliffe’s farting corpse movie. I am happy to report that is EXACTLY what the movie is (among about two dozen other things) and it earns every second of its scatologically-obsessed running time. There are poops, farts, boners, masturbation […]
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Space Oddity
“Star Trek” soars beyond its galaxy
The Star Trek franchise has learned a valuable lesson in the three years since “Star Trek Into Darkness.” American and worldwide audiences want some fun in their science fiction blockbusters. There can be darkness and serious plot developments, but when everything comes across as joyless and dour, audiences and critics don’t respond quite as well. […]
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Gerwig in a Box
“Maggie’s Plan” defies convention with convention
There is a specific type of indie romantic dramedy that has popped up over the last few years that owes a deep debt to the work of John Cassavetes. He brought a cinéma vérité style to American independent films that added a gritty realism to a genre that had only ever been light and fluffy. […]
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Brobusters
Your childhood is perfectly safe
We should get the elephant in the room out of the way first. “Ghostbusters” 2016 is a reboot of the classic 1984 film and the less classic 1989 sequel (plus numerous video games and an animated series). The four new Ghostbusters are also women played by Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon. […]
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Giant Country
The BFG is a flawed marvel
I don’t remember much detail about Roald Dahl’s 1982 children’s book “The BFG,” but I remember how it made me feel. I know that after I put that book down, the world seemed like a much larger place: a world filled with mysteries I would never understand or even discover. For moments throughout “The BFG” […]
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Swingers
Tarzan, Jane and cultural stagnation
Sometimes it’s easy to describe a movie as a “throwback:” something that would have worked if it had been released in a bygone era with different cultural standards and practices. For example: “Raiders of the Lost Ark” was a throwback to the film serials of the 1930s and 1940s that George Lucas grew up watching. […]
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Irreverent Commentary Makes Bad Movies Hilarious
MST3K is back without missing a beat
Bendites who miss Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) are in for a real treat. For those few unfortunate individuals who have never seen the cult classic television show, it starred Joel Hodgson as a janitor trapped on The Satellite of Love by a couple of mad scientists who wanted to rule the world. Along with […]