Screen
Home viewing: Satire streams
A lecture may get your point across, but a story illustrates it better. And if you can smuggle in a little humor, it’s a...
The right stuff
On May 14, 2018, Tom Wolfe — one of America’s most exuberant writers — died at the age of 88. Among his litany of...
Now and then
I love lists. Lists bring order to my day: what to do, what to watch, what to read, what to listen to. Lists provide...
Making a game of it
Most graphic novel-based films shed the visual style of the original work, though a few have tried to present a hybrid view, notably Sin City and Warren Beatty’s Dick Tracy, but Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is the first to offer up a unique hybrid where the action, ...
Taking a scenic sociopath
Oftentimes, films determined to be quirky and fun actually come off as little more than overconfident jackassery, a condition now known as Baby Driver-itis....
Free Japan!
Movies are a reflection of culture. Be it comedy, survival or everyday angst, Americans find touchstones among the moving pictures we see. Yet looking beyond our own theaters can provide a glimpse of what is special to cultures on other parts of our planet...
Going gaga for Kojo
Writer/director Blitz Bazawule’s first feature-length film feels exactly like someone telling you about a dream they had. Only you’re actually interested in it, and...
The long of it
About a decade ago, a bunch of rich assholes collapsed the world’s economy because they were dumb, evil and greedy. They didn’t go to...
Home is wherever I’m with you
I’ve just always been fascinated by what happens when you take a doodle and breathe life into it,” animation director Tim Johnson says, describing his career and passion. Ever since the birth of the flickering image, writers, directors, animators and viewers have ...
Cinema verboten
Between 1933 and 1945, Germany’s Third Reich produced 1,200 feature films, of which 300 were labeled propaganda by the Allies and banned from public screenings and distribution following the war. To this day, restrictions on 40 of these titles are still in place...
‘The Huntsman: Winter’s War’ is awful good
God, The Huntsman: Winter’s War should not work. Like, it should cause uncontrollable vomiting and permanent erectile dysfunction. So, sweet Jeebus, do I have...
