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 Michael Jackson […]
Read more
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 Werner Herzog’s madmen-in-jungles adventures, […]
Read more
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, Around […]
Read more
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 film is a buddy cop movie […]
Read more
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. […]
Read more
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 Lycans is the worst Underworld movie, […]
Read more
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 […]
Read more
An inspiring story anemically told.
Read more
In which “LAPD” is a dirty word.
Read more
The first installment makes an auspicious start.
Read more
The Adult Swim series isn’t the type of project you usually see from athletes. But with Mike Tyson, that’s no surprise.
Read more
The winsome horse-racing documentary is a swift, smooth ride.
Read more