Review: Becky

Forget punching Nazis. Are you craving to see a gang of white supremacists ripped to bloody bits? Good news for you: Becky has arrived. Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion, co-directors of the action-packed B-movies Cooties and Bushwick, reteam for their best yet. Becky centers on a pint-sized Rambo who uses her forested tree fort as […]

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Watch This: The Vast of Night

When watching The Vast of Night, the Slamdance phenomenon currently streaming on Amazon Prime, it’s hard not to be reminded of Brad Bird’s now-famous quote about Colin Trevorrow when Bird recommended him to direct Jurassic World: “There’s this guy who reminds me of me.” Making claims about the future of cinema is a somewhat risky […]

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Fletch Endures, 35 Years and 11 Novels Later

Early on in Fletch Won, the eighth published novel in the series by Gregory McDonald and the first chronologically, Irwin Maurice Fletcher is reassigned to the society pages of the Los Angeles News-Tribune. “Frank, I don’t believe in society.” “That’s okay, Fletch. Society doesn’t believe in you, either.” So retroactively begins the career of the […]

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What We Can Learn from the Scorsese Shorts

It’s tempting, when viewing the early Martin Scorsese short films and mid-length documentaries assembled in the Criterion Collection’s new Scorsese Shorts, to focus on the coming attractions – the little flourishes, already present in these formative works, that would come to define the legendary filmmaker’s style. And make no mistake, they’re there: the first-person voice-over […]

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Review: The High Note

Like a highly produced pop song that leaves your head the second it’s over, The High Note is pleasant enough while you’re experiencing it, but it refuses to linger after the credits roll. Dakota Johnson and Tracee Ellis Ross lead a strong cast in this fun but forgettable film with the potential to be so […]

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Classic Corner: Céline and Julie Go Boating

When the semi-annual conversation on female buddy movies resurfaces, there are usual suspects. Thelma and Louise. B.A.P.S. Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion. Steel Magnolias. One film that doesn’t show up in the conversation nearly as much as it should  is the French masterpiece Céline and Julie Go Boating (now streaming on The Criterion Channel). […]

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The Proto-‘Matrix’ ‘Johnny Mnemonic’ Never Tries To Be Anything But Itself

The 1990s were a strange time for filmmakers attempting to understand the Internet. As the technology went mainstream, with more families securing their own connections to the World Wide Web at home and schools adapting their curriculum to include more computer instruction, cinema responded. There were horror offerings: 1992’s The Lawnmower Man, a (litigiously) loose […]

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Watch This: The Lovebirds

Paramount’s decision to sell The Lovebirds directly to Netflix in the wake of theater closings may seem like a real bummer at first glance, but it’s actually a blessing in disguise. The romantic comedy, starring Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani and directed by Michael Showalter, undeniably plays better on a small screen than in a […]

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All Steadicam and No Play: Movement in The Shining

In 1998, Stanley Kubrick accepted the D.W. Griffith Award from the Director’s Guild of America. In his acceptance speech, he compared Griffith to the Grecian myth of Icarus. Like Icarus, Griffith flew too close to the sun, but instead of his wax-and-feather wings melting, Griffith was shunned by the movie industry he largely created. Did […]

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