We live in weird times. Wherever you are on the political spectrum, you probably agree that the world has seen better days. Some people find a silver lining in the fact that great art is often born in the wake of perilous times — take the paranoid thrillers that followed Watergate, for example...

Here are two pairs of contrasting visions: CONTRAST 1: The dark amniotic encasement of a movie theater, surrounded by fellow cinematic worshipers, the screen ignited with vivid color and soaring music, ushering us into an artist's salutary vision — versus sitting at home in front of a...

Since he burst onto the independent film scene in 1994 with Clerks, profanity-prone writer/director Kevin Smith has more or less stayed on brand. With few exceptions, his films revolve around verbose slackers in varied states of arrested development – almost literally in the case of his debut’s...

Patriots Day tries to give audiences great value: three movies for the price of one. It starts by telling the personal stories of people affected by the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings: victims, police, folks suddenly entangled in the criminals’ escape. The bombing itself briefly drives the movie...

In October 2013, I lost my battle with a liver disease known as PSC, primary sclerosing cholangitis. It causes the bile ducts to swell up, and sometimes swell shut, which turns the body into a giant clogged toilet. When that happens, your skin turns yellow and your eyes do a great impression of...

Martin Scorsese works with two of his favorite themes in Silence -- Catholicism and violence -- but not in the way he's done in the past. Slowly paced and, yes, often quiet, Scorsese's adaptation of Shusaku Endo's acclaimed 1966 novel has the contemplative mood of a Terrence Malick film, or one of...

Product placement has been around for a long time. Like, super-long. We tend to think of it in terms of movies and TV shows, but the truth is, the concept was in use well before the Lumière brothers were born. Perhaps the first notable use of product placement was in Jules Verne’s classic novel,...

A few days ago, a picture from Will Smith’s upcoming film Bright surfaced. Smith is on set, smiling with a cop’s handlebar mustache and uniform with a medal draped over his chest. Next to him is a similarly-dressed being with mottled green-yellow skin and inhuman features. Yes, Smith’s new...

The young people would tell me I had all the feels in 2016. Actually, way too many my age would say the same. I know I brought plenty of emotional baggage to the theater in 2016, and in return, this past year of cinema made me tear up, quiver, tremble, and blubber like a baby. I blame Amy Adams,...

It’s a common problem. In fact, it happened to so many of you just last weekend. A quiet moment at a particularly raucous New Year’s Eve party created the perfect occasion for that familiar conversation. Your best friend rhetorically jabs: “So we’re all in agreement that Rise of the...

Exciting news, movie fans! Remember how there were movies in 2016? Well, if the rumors we're hearing are true, there are also going to be movies in 2017. A lot of them -- maybe even 30. To help prepare your body and mind for this eventuality, we have compiled a schedule of the highlights. All...

An inspiring story anemically told.

The winsome horse-racing documentary is a swift, smooth ride.

The film can't kick sports drama cliches.

There are two kinds of inspiring Olympic movies: the kind that awe us with accounts of athletes in peak condition, and the kind that amuse us with accounts of regular people who somehow found Olympic glory. This second kind is more relatable. You're not fast enough to be Jesse Owens, and you don't...