“Like all good ‘content’, He’s All That is peddling not a story but numbness, using two familiar, comforting triggers for the Netflix-native generation: disdain and nostalgia. The bland acting, the insipid plot, the cringeworthy Frito-pushing all are calibrated for the Gen-Z viewer blasting themselves with content from three-odd screens at once, without fully engaging with any of them.”
Read MoreBlog
“The agonizing spectacle of the rival “queens” dueling it out for a sliver of control over their corner of society- armed with Judy Garland quotes and Bette Davis imitations- gains more than the average big-budget stage production might from its ensemble of Hollywood actors, for whom the central theme- the dual joy and repression of performance- seems all too believable.”
Read More“Jordan’s strategy allows the film to operate on multiple planes of interpretation for a broad audience: depicting both the gravity of people’s pain, and the comic, ridiculous nature of the social predicaments and prejudices which create it.”
Read More“Ron Burgundy is a risible fossil at the start of the movie. But unlike so many other male leading men of his vintage, he shows an awareness of his position in a “glass case of emotion”, and a willingness to change.”
Read More“Despite a few strong performances, and the decently grisly premise of Texas's real-life Truck Stop Killer, Midnight in the Switchgrass dooms itself to the status of talking point on a few E! red carpet interviews.”
Read More“The Pet Sematary remake provides an unfortunate illustration of the story’s moral: some things are better off dead. Bundling the worn-out and overfamiliar characters and premise of Stephen King’s ubiquitous 1983 source material, and its 1989 film adaption, into their graves (and out again) with an air of resigned efficiency, this big-budget effort is a study in soulless resurrection, in more ways than one.”
Read More“William Goldman reports that when Peter Sellers was asked if he’d do anything in his life differently, he responded with "I would do everything exactly the same except I wouldn't see The Magus." His advice should be ignored by anyone with 90-odd minutes to spare for a luscious, acid-trip sixties progenitor of Shutter Island crossed with Mamma Mia.”
Read More“Perhaps only a seasoned yet relatively unknown Pixar artist, with no feature film directing experience but a wealth of personal memories, could make a Disney film about a pasta eating competition in 1950s Italy into a charming childhood homage, rather than an exercise in eye rolling.”
Read More