In the spring of 1988, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince released the album He’s the DJ, I’m the Rapper, featuring the single “Parents Just Don’t Understand,” a massive hit that would go on to win the first-ever Grammy for best rap performance. The album’s next single was to be “A...

Thirty years ago this month, the world saw the release of one of the most divisive movies ever made: Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ. The film stands almost unrivaled in terms of ferocity of backlash and cultural import, and the controversy it inspired helped establish the...

When Pineapple Express was released in the summer of 2008, it was seen as a major departure for director David Gordon Green, best known at the time for well-observed character studies like George Washington (2000), All the Real Girls (2002), and Undertow (2004, with executive producer Terrence...

The sixth Mission: Impossible movie was released 22 years and two months after the first one — say what you will about this franchise, they're not crankin' 'em out like sausages. There's always a gap of at least three years between entries, as that's how long it takes a new Tom Cruise clone to...

Against all odds, the spy-thriller-with-bonkers-stunts-and-goofy-disguises-starring-a-guy-from-Top-Gun-and-based-on-a-1960s-TV-show industry is booming. Six Mission: Impossibles deep and Tom Cruise doesn’t have much will to live left to lose. It’s no minor miracle that his obsessive devotion to...

After the unexpected success of Star Wars in 1977, studios rushed to recreate the film and its massive popularity. This saw a huge spate of ripoffs like Starcrash, Battle Beyond the Stars, and one of the most wildly inventive, strange, and beautiful films ever made: Toei Studios' Message from...

“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy — they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby As...

From The Searchers to You Were Never Really Here, the "captivity narrative" is one of America's strongest tropes When Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here (now available on DVD/VOD) came out this past spring, it was hailed as a modern update of Taxi Driver. Like Martin Scorsese’s...

The Blu-ray format arrived on June 20, 2006 -- that’s a whopping 12 years ago for those of you who struggle with mental math -- but there is still an abundance of films that have yet to see a release in that format. Ask a physical media collector which movies they’re hoping to see get the...

In March, director Peyton Reed told Empire Magazine that his Ant-Man and the Wasp, despite early reports, is “not a romantic comedy,” and that any romantic connection between its title characters (played by Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly) would take a backseat to the action sequences and...

Toys R Gone. Her smock said “Last of The Toys R Us Kids.” If that was any kind of honor, the cashier didn’t wear it like one. I knew they were closing, but it didn’t sink in until I saw it. The place that enchanted me as a kid more than anywhere else within driving distance would soon...

Are you tired of social media self-loathing? Well, I have good news: you can re-direct your negative vibes onto ill-fated movie characters who will have you screaming and cursing quietly as they get scorched by horrible summertime decisions. Here are four psychological thrillers — all currently...

In 1993, before binge-watching was feasible and when most TV shows were made to be as accessible as possible, a drama series broke new ground, splitting its episodes between heavily serialized “mythology” installments and stand-alone “monster of the week” entries. That show was Chris...

Way back in the prolific filmography Steven Soderbergh (whose latest film, Unsane, is out on DVD this week), there’s the tiny Schizopolis (1996), his hilarious, endlessly creative mental breakdown of a vanity project. Full of ideas and self-amusement, It’s best imagined as Soderbergh’s...

Pride Month was ushered in this year by A Kid Like Jake, a tender adaptation of Daniel Pearle’s play about a 4-year-old boy who loves to dress up as princesses. His parents (wonderfully played by Jim Parsons and Claire Danes) struggle to navigate the thorny politics of rearing a gender...