Any Bond film was going to pale in comparison to Goldfinger, but even so Thunderball was a remarkably weak effort – and easily the weakest film in the Sean Connery canon. Neither as light on its feet as Goldfinger, nor as taut or propulsive, Thunderball mainly unfolds in the Bahamas, where Bond has to thwart […]
Young: Thunderball (1965)
Embracing your inner badass. So this is about an everyday person (Bob Odenkirk). He’s an unremarkable family man, and he would not stand out in a crowd. On a night where his home is robbed, the dominos start falling which will lead to him going on a mayhem-filled spree. Now I was looking forward to […]
Saul Wick – Nobody (2021)
“The Sleepless” is drama and romance at its most elemental and charming — just two insomniacs, meeting and chatting on a long walk through the empty streets of Brooklyn at dawn. Sometimes cute, occasionally touching and generally charming, it won’t go down as one of the great “just a conversation” films. The dialogue doesn’t paint […]
Movie Review: “The Sleepless” and Lonely Strangers meet in Brooklyn’s Wee Hours
Truth be told, Christopher Walken has always worn his pants grandpa-high, his hats a little out-of-date. And he’s always grown a mean goatee, even in his silvery “legend of the cinema” years. So it’s no stretch thinking of him as a grandfatherly Saskatchewan canola farmer getting his back up when pushed around by Big Ag […]
Movie Review: Walken vs Monsanto, “Percy vs. Goliath”
During the war, a titled family object to their squadron leader son’s engagement to the daughter of a factory worker. This is a film I watched due to the desire to expand my repertoire of films. Amazon Prime certainly is the place to find the sorts of films people forget. It’s also quite an obscure […]
These People Next Door (1953)
Not every story can move us one way or another. Not because we are senseless, heartless or indifferent towards others but because we think no problem is bigger than our own. Then why, one may ask, should I even bother knowing what happens in the rest of the world when my own is in scrambles? […]
Hot Docs 2021: “Writing with Fire”
“The New Deal for Artists” was a mid-70s documentary for public television that gathered many of the folks who benefited from Franklin Roosevelt’s assorted New Deal work projects to talk about how that Great Depression “put people back to work” program benefited themselves, American art and America in general. From New York theater types to […]
Classic Documentary Review: “The New Deal for Artists” (1976)
NEON is one of the most compelling distributors of our day. A few days back they dropped a trailer for what looks to be another fascinating part of their catalog. “New Order” is the latest film from visionary writer-director Michael Franco. This dystopian thriller looks to have a biting relevance and an unflinchingly brutal perspective […]
First Glance: “New Order”
Title – Wrath of Man (2021) Director – Guy Ritchie (Snatch) Cast – Jason Statham, Holt McCallany, Josh Hartnett, Jeffrey Donovan, Scott Eastwood, Niamh Algar Plot – Follows the mysterious H (Statham), a violent man who works at a cash truck company in Los Angeles and a man who gets caught up in a dangerous […]
Film Review – Wrath of Man (2021)
Without Remorse is based on the 1993 Tom Clancy novel of the same name. It’s fitting the novel was written in the early 90’s, the film is a throwback to the early 90’s action films that flooded theaters and currently live on basic cable. The story follows John Clark (Michal B Jordan), a member of […]
Review: Without Remorse
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 4 out of 5. Mass incarceration is one of the largest problems in the US. Maybe it’s because of the privatized prisons. But the numbers are rising at an alarming rate, and Philadelphia is the city that holds the ignominious record for being the U.S. city with most incarcerations ever. “Philly D.A.” is […]
Hot Docs 2021: “Philly D.A.”
The struggle against the government. So as you can probably guess, this is about Billie Holiday (Andra Day). The feds don’t like her singing her song “Strange Fruit” since it’s about lynching. You can’t arrest someone for singing a song, so they try to bring her down for drug addiction. This is her story. Now, […]
Silencing a Song – The United States vs. Billie Holiday (2021)
I always like to have a variety in this blind spot series, so for April I decided to watch the 1967 romantic comedy Two for the Road. As a huge Audrey Hepburn fan this is one I had heard about but never seen and was excited to check off my list. It’s interesting because this […]
Blind Spot 64: Two for the Road
The phrase “sullen teen” doesn’t know borders and has symptoms one can recognize anywhere on Earth. The frown is there just to break up the monotony of the omnipresent scowl. “Please” and “thank you” are the hardest words in any language to master. Smoking? Sure. But only if it infuriates adults. And even those who […]
Movie Review: A Polish teen in Ireland, “I Never Cry”
Just so you know where I’m coming from, Captain America has always been my favorite Marvel superhero and not just during his run in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Long before Marvel Studios started raking in billions of dollars at the box office, I was enthusiastically following Captain America’s comic book adventures, both as the head […]
REVIEW: “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier”
An exciting first trailer as dropped for the upcoming Netflix survival thriller “Oxygen”. It comes from director Alexandre Aja whose last movie was the surprisingly entertaining “Crawl”. You know, the one about a father and daughter trapped inside their flooded home by killer alligators during a Category 5 hurricane. On paper it sounded ludicrous. But […]
First Glance: “Oxygen”
Spotting Jenny Agutter’s face somewhere amongst the chewing-gum Bayeaux tapestry of The Avengers was something of a culture-shock; back in the early 70’s, she was a go-to girl for iconic British cinema, from Nic Roeg’s Walkabout to The Railway Children. David Greene’s I Star Counting! probably wasn’t one of her better-known flicks, but this restoration […]
I Start Counting!
Avast, landlubbers, today’s movie selection deals with the rarely-seen topic of sea monsters! But before you lay out your harpoons and start double-tracking the vocals on your sea-shanties, this is a Spanish art-film about sea-monsters on the Mubi channel, so don’t expect 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea shenanigans. Lois Patiño’s film feels like what would […]
Red Moon Tide
With About Endlessness, Roy Andersson once again weaves together short vignettes that uncover the intricacy and vulnerability of the human condition.
ABOUT ENDLESSNESS: Roy Andersson’s Latest Is A Splendid Existential Work
There were high hopes for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS)’ 93rd Academy Awards ceremony. For the first time in history, nearly half of the nominees in acting categories were people of color, and 70 women were nominated across all 23 categories. These were unprecedented numbers for an awards show that has existed…
Daniel Kaluuya Unintentionally Summed Up Oscars Diversity the Best: There’s Still a Lot of Work to Do
