I saw Sing Sing over the weekend, and it blew me away. This film was a masterclass in acting and directing. It was thematically powerful, had a definite point of view, and drove home emotionally charged components. It had important messages about incarceration and the ideas of rehabilitation vs. punishment. Let’s talk about the story …
Category: Reviews
My Number 6 Favorite Screenplay of the Year: Challengers
Now that we’re halfway through the year, I thought this would be a good time to acknowledge the best of what we’ve seen so far. Traditionally, the first half of the year can be kind of a wasteland when it comes to good movies. We generally see Oscar-bait movies get their wide release after the …
Six! My Six favorite screenplays of the year so far!
We are essentially halfway through the year. In no particular order, my top 5 favorite screenplays of the year are: Inside Out 2 Dune Part 2 Wicked Little Letters The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare The Fall Guy Challengers Over the next few days, I will discuss each of these screenplays in detail. I will examine …
Inside Out 2: PIXAR Picks Up the Slack
I will admit that when I first heard that Inside Out 2 was on the slate, I was underwhelmed. While I liked the first movie, I never considered it to be one of PIXAR’s best efforts. Maybe it was a top-15 or even top-12 PIXAR film, but it wasn’t in my personal top-10, and I …
My five favorite screenplays of the year so far
We are almost halfway through the year. In no particular order, my top 5 favorite screenplays of the year are: Dune 2 Wicked Little Letters The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare The Fall Guy Challengers Over the next few days, I will discuss each of these screenplays in detail. I will examine what the screenwriters did …
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga – Too Much and Not Enough
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga kicked off the Summer Blockbuster season with a whimper over Memorial Day weekend. Does it portend a down summer at the box office? Only time will tell, but Director George Miller, who has made a career of smashing cars in the desert presented us with a film that did not …
Civil War: A Cowardly Film
I was shocked by Civil War. I wasn’t shocked by a riveting story about a once-powerful nation torn asunder by internal strife that escalated into mass violence. I wasn’t shocked by a portrayal of a broken political system that led a once-content population to violently rise up and kill its leaders. I wasn’t shocked by the proposition …
Monkey Man: Too Much Thrown Against the Wall and Not Enough Stuck
In his feature directorial debut, Dev Patel gave us an action-packed feature with a lot of ultra-violence that also tried to delve into some contemporary social issues. Patel, who also penned the screenplay, created a film that felt like a mashup of his breakout film, the uber-dramatic Slumdog Millionaire, along with action films like Kill …
Wicked Little Letters Shows Us How to Break the Rules
And yet, it still follows them. Wicked Little Letters was released this past weekend, and if you haven’t seen it—and judging by the box office numbers—you haven’t—it’s definitely worth your time. That’s especially true if you’re a fan of British humor. This movie feels like it’s got elements of Guy Richie, Edgar Wright, and Monty …
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire – A Failed Stewardship
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is a film that held great promise. It was coming off a successful reboot of a beloved franchise. It reunited everyone who made the first one so successful, and it followed a similar structure of Ghostbusters 2, which made me feel like we should be getting, if not a great movie, at …