‘Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation’ Is Genndy Tartakovsky’s Mania Gone Unproductively Mad
“For all the music that ‘Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation’ offers, it amounts to a one-note production.”
More Than Just Design: ‘Incredibles 2’ and Yesterday’s Tomorrow
“Clean and sleek Jet Age Futurism bleeds into every nook and cranny of ‘Incredibles 2’ — so much so that Bird seems to be saying ‘this is what we should have been doing all along.’”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: John Ford’s ‘The Searchers’
“‘The Searchers’ has moments of low-brow comedy and moments of penetrating tension, its interconnected themes involve love and guilt, and its visual and spiritual essence falls somewhere in the realm of poetic melancholy.”
Scrappily-Assembled Star Wars: ‘Solo’ Is Safe Galactic Fun
“The film is not without heart, though its heart exists in scattered fragments without assimilating into a cohesive whole.”
Review: Anthony and Joe Russo’s ‘Avengers: Infinity War’
“‘Avengers: Infinity War’ is the apex of franchise movie-making, bringing together a plethora of heroes from a number of different franchises to form the blockbuster of blockbusters.”
‘A Wrinkle in Time’ Missed the Stars but Aimed High
“‘A Wrinkle in Time’ is for kids, and I mean ‘made for kids’ in the supportive definition rather than the usual lazy and disparaging connotation that’s carelessly applied to more lukewarm family films.”
Review: Alex Garland’s ‘Annihilation’
“‘Annihilation’ is far from indecipherable, as it counts on its ability to be understood.”
Berlinale 2018 Review: Wes Anderson’s ‘Isle of Dogs’
“While messy in parts and offering more of a sprint than a narrative marathon, there is great heart and ferocious energy in this cartoonish caper.”
‘Mary and the Witch’s Flower’ Is Chock-Full of Studio Ghibli Fairy Dust
“While it doesn’t pop with philosophical resonance like Ghibli pictures, it has enough fairy dust in its sleeves to keep you transfixed and rooting for the heroine.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Henri-Georges Clouzot’s ‘The Wages of Fear’
“Just because ‘The Wages of Fear’ is dire and pessimistic, that doesn’t make it any less perceptive or accurate. Quite the contrary: the virulent truth only makes it that much more engrossing…”
Review: Scott Cooper’s ‘Hostiles’
“For all its attempts at dissecting human cruelty, there’s no human core to this story, which makes its 135-minute runtime feel twice as long.”
Despite Needing Tune-Ups, Pixar’s ‘Coco’ Is a Color-Saturated Celebration of Family
“A dance of layered visuals and eye-popping patterns, ‘Coco’ is well balanced with the understated”
Zack Snyder’s ‘Justice League’ Saves the Earth but Not the DC Extended Universe
“The DC Extended Universe is not doomed, but it needs its own clear identity and purpose. Rebranding ‘The Avengers’ is not the answer.”
London Film Festival Review: Andrew Haigh‘s ‘Lean on Pete’
“‘Lean on Pete’ hits the mark emotionally and reveals itself to be a poised, moving film.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Kate Saccone on Lotte Reiniger’s ‘The Adventures of Prince Achmed’
“As the artist who painstakingly moved her hand-cut figures frame-by-frame, Reiniger’s presence is impossible to ignore while watching her films.”
TIFF 2017 Review: Guillermo del Toro’s ‘The Shape of Water’
“Guillermo del Toro may very well be cinema’s reigning master of monster mythology.”
DIFF 2017 Review: James Gray’s ‘The Lost City of Z’
‘It cannot be understated: ‘The Lost City of Z’ is a revelation.’
Streamless – Off the Subscription Grid: ‘The Star Wars Holiday Special’
Mike Postalakis on the 1978 Fiasco ‘The Star Wars Holiday Special’
Christopher Nolan’s ‘Interstellar’ and the Need for Humane Media
“Love can be what survives if we show up to do the work.”
Neaux Reel Idea: The Southern Sage
Neaux Reel Idea is a Vague Visages column by Bill Arceneaux, in which he explores the cinema of his native New Orleans.