I had been looking forward to Napoleon’s release for months. I don’t remember when I saw the first trailer for it, but as soon as I saw that Ridley Scott was directing Joaquin Phoenix, my initial response was, “Yes, please!” I had visions of Gladiator dancing in my head, and my expectations for this film …
Category: Reviews
The Holdovers: Alexander Payne Knows How to Fix Broken Characters
The Holdovers was a little bit Dead Poets Society, a little bit Scent of a Woman, and a whole lot of charming and entertaining. This film was a lot of fun, and it was very much a character-driven film. That is to say that there wasn’t a ton of plot and there was even less …
Killers of the Flower Moon: Long, but Worth It
Killers of the Flower Moon might be a top-5 Martin Scorsese film. Yes, the running time pushes four hours. Yes, its placing is as deliberate as it can be. But the acting is nothing short of sublime. Scorsese’s direction matches nearly any film he’s ever made, the cinematography is stunning, and the screenplay is loaded …
The Creator: Unmet Potential, Little Originality, and a Disappointing Ending
The Creator was a little bit Children of Men, a little bit District 9, and a little bit Rambo: First Blood Part II. It was clearly a parable for the Israel-Palestinian conflict, which makes the timing of its release an unfortunate coincidence. This was a film with a lot to say, and it was able …
Everything Everywhere All at Once: A Thematic Spectacle
Everything Everywhere All at Once is a stylized film that combines a whole lot of familiar ideas to create a film that is utterly unique. While watching this film, I felt like I was seeing something the likes of which I had never seen before. Later as I reflected on it, I realized that it …
The Batman is Badass
First off, The Batman was long. It was two hours and fifty minutes, and to be honest with you, it left me wanting more. I would have been happy if it came in at three hours, and I will explain why shortly. The old cliché that it didn’t feel like it was three hours long …
Licorice Pizza – An Almost Great Film
I have seen all of Paul Thomas Anderson’s films and it’s fair to say that he has a certain kind of voice through his filmmaking, and that voice is a dark one. There are exceptions, of course, but his films tend to be serious, deliberate, and artistic. Licorice Pizza goes against type more than any …
Nightmare Alley – A Beautiful Neo Noir Journey
Warning! Mild spoilers I was a little late to the party, but I’m glad I finally showed up while it was still going on. It’s a bummer that Nightmare Alley is doing so poorly at the box office because this is an excellent film that is cinematic enough that it ought to be seen in …
Minari – An Almost Great Movie
After watching Best Picture nominee Minari, I came away feeling like it was almost a great movie. It is a character-driven movie that relies on the challenges facing the various relationships to build drama. A couple of these relationships effectively hit the mark, but this is a movie that fell into the trap of writer/director Lee Isaak …
Sound of Metal – A Hero’s Journey
I finally got around to watching Sound of Metal and I found it to be a compelling and riveting story. There was nary an explosion to be found. No gunshots. No car chases. No breakneck action sequences. It was a slow, mostly quiet, deliberately paced story and I could not look away from it. You might ask, …