Once Upon a Time in Tarantinoland: ‘Inglourious Basterds’ Deftly Blends Suspense and Black Comedy
“‘Inglourious Basterds’ is a study in suspense.”
Advertisements
Advertisements
‘Tolkien’ Is a Competent Yet Clichéd Biopic About ‘The Lord of the Rings’ Creator
“Those seeking some deep-dive exploration into Tolkien and his process will likely get more out of a standard biography or documentary. As it stands, ‘Tolkien’ is a merely adequate celebration of the author and the power of art.”
Review: Peter Jackson’s ‘They Shall Not Grow Old’
“‘They Shall Not Grow Old’ is such an apt title because the experiences of these soldiers are made entirely immediate, through both technical and narrative care. Peter Jackson reaches into the past and immortalizes those lives through film.”
This Is This: The Manifold Masculinity of Michael Cimino’s ‘The Deer Hunter’
“Confronted, challenged and upended throughout the course of Michael Cimino’s ‘The Deer Hunter,’ conventional notions of masculinity are routinely conditional to the film’s dominant shifts in setting and tone.”
Film Noir and Apocalyptic Anxiety
“Where is our own cinema of madness?”
Album Review: Ty Segall ‘Fudge Sandwich’
“‘Fudge Sandwich’ is the kind of album that provides listeners with a new favorite track every day, no small feat for a collection of cover tunes.”
Telling Stories in Order to Survive: ‘Argo’
“‘Argo’ allows you to enjoy the CIA’s outlandish caper, but it also confronts you with the ambivalence of the larger picture.”
Lady Bird and the War of Innocence
“Maybe this war of innocence is one that’s never really won or lost. Maybe we just take life one battle at a time.”
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.”
Review: Christopher Nolan’s ‘Dunkirk’
“As a portrait of differing wartime experiences, ‘Dunkirk’ is too plot-oriented to be successful.”