Box Office Mojo has data for 839 movies released in 2018. That’s a lot of movies! It’s also about 500 short. The actual number of new movies released in the United States in 2018 — “released” = played at least once a day for at least a week in at least one theater — is […]
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The usual disclaimers apply: I didn’t see every movie, I’m an idiot who doesn’t know what he’s talking about, etc. I note that four of the 10 were directed by women, and nine of them were “festival movies,” premiering at Toronto, Sundance, or Telluride. There were a lot of excellent movies in 2018, but these […]
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Etan Cohen didn’t write Holmes & Watson as a vehicle for Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly. Indeed, at one point Ferrell was going to play Dr. Watson, with Sacha Baron Cohen (no relation) as Sherlock. It’s hard to tell how much the script changed when Ferrell and Reilly got onboard as the detective and his […]
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Movies We Looked Back on with Fondness and/or Bemusement: Another Woman (1988), the Woody Allen film starring Gena Rowlands (Craig J. Clark) Baghead (2008) and mumblecore (Craig J. Clark) Blade: Trinity (2004) was Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool audition (Chauncey Talese) Carnosaur (1993), Roger Corman’s Jurassic Park (Jeremy Herbert) Child’s Play (1988) and consumerism (Bill Bria) Christmas Evil […]
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The final moments of Wildlife and A Star is Born involve an acknowledgment of the camera. In Wildlife, that moment is an arranged family photo that pays tribute to a non-existent family. In A Star Is Born, it’s a moment of grief and star-making, one in which something old is destroyed so that something new […]
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Based on my own research. Films included only if they played theatrically. Corrections and additions are welcome (@ me). For comparison’s sake, here’s the 2017 edition. Total wide releases (600+ theaters): 160 Sequels, prequels, remakes, reboots, and franchises: 42 Based on novels, stories, legends, or video games: 33 Based on a true story (BOATS): […]
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This sequel to Bryan Bertino’s excellent home invasion film was in development for so many years that it began to seem like a bad idea – especially when it was revealed that Bertino would not be returning to write and direct (though he did produce it). But rather than rehash the wildly effective formula of its […]
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Jason Reitman is never as good as when he’s collaborating with screenwriter Diablo Cody; bonus points if the film in question stars Charlize Theron, as Tully does. This unexpectedly searing film alternates between tender drama and psychological terror, plumbing the depths of an exhausted woman’s (Theron) psyche to explore exactly what it means to be […]
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If you’ve heard anything about Xavier Legrand’s Custody — admittedly, it’s possible you haven’t — it’s likely writer/director Xavier Legrand’s elevator pitch that his film “starts like Kramer vs. Kramer and ends like The Shining.” The logline can be taken quite literally, as the film starts with an extended courtroom scene between estranged spouses and ends […]
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Probably because I was one myself once, I have little tolerance for movies that center on chest-thumping, self-pitying suburban teen boys. Meanwhile, I outright despise the glut of ’80s nostalgia that’s pervaded cinema and television for what seems like the last 20 years. It was therefore with heavy trepidation that I approached Summer of ’84. […]
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The Commuter, Jaume Collet-Serra’s fourth collaboration with Liam Neeson, is a two-fisted Hitchcock riff with enough personality, humor, and righteous anger to stand out from the current crop of old-man action movies. While it may retread much of the same ground as the duo’s earlier Non-Stop (2014), it also refines the formula: the characters are […]
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The filmmaking duo of Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead have consistently proven they know how to work within budget limitations to produce subtly chilling sci-fi/horror films that don’t rely on excessive gore or jump scares to get under an audience’s skin. This is especially true of The Endless, which they not only co-directed (in addition […]
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