Last night, fully intent on just viewing one movie before going to bed, I decided to watch the 1977 film, Short Eyes. Why I thought that was a good idea, I’m not sure. Even though I didn’t know much about the film, I did know that it was a gritty prison drama that was written […]
Film Review: Short Eyes (dir by Robert M. Young)
Part of the purpose of the Blind Spot series is to challenge myself to watch classic films outside of my comfort zone. These are usually films I’ve heard great things about but have been hesitant to watch for one reason or another. 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde definitely fall into that description. A landmark of its […]
Blind Spot 65: Bonnie and Clyde
The underfunding of Minari is hardly a controversy, but outside of a few Twitter threads, nobody is discussing it.
Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment Shortchanged MINARI
Imagine the nerds from “The Big Bang Theory” stumbling into the plot of “Taken,” or pretty much any Liam Neeson out-for-revenge thriller. Now imagine them Danish. That’s “Riders of Justice,” the dark, bloody, sweet and sometimes hilarious comic thriller from Anders Thomas Jensen. He scripted the Oscar-winning “In a Better World,” which had similar messaging […]
Movie Review: Danish, Dark, Bloody and…Sweet? “Riders of Justice”
An alienated teenager, Tom (Freddie Cunliffe) saddened that he has moved away from London, must find a way to deal with a dark family secret. I stumbled across this film while working my way through film decades on Prime. I tried to remain as unaware of this film as I possibly could because I felt […]
Quick Thoughts about Episode One – Star Wars: The Bad Batch is a welcome addition to the Star Wars animated world, and is refreshingly unique as it follows Clone Force 99, a group of defectively born, and battle-hardened clones throughout the post-Clone Wars universe. The official synopsis for the show is “Members of a unique […]
Star Wars: The Bad Batch – Episode One Review
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 […]
Truth be told, Christopher Walken has always worn his pants grandpa-high, his hats a little out-of-date.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”
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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
Hi folks and welcome to the The Friday Film Club where both myself and Elwood will be highlighting a film which we feel is worth checking out. At the same time we would love to hear your own selections whether you’re choosing to just name them in the comments section or join us in arguing […]
Friday Film Club: Jojo Rabbit (2019) & Better Days (2019)
All over Istanbul, entrepreneurial scavengers pull junk carts, filling the canvas bags on those carts with recyclable cans, liquor bottles and especially cardboard. A lot of them are orphans, the street children of the city who grew up on this work, running carts for a go-between who pays them for their collections and sells those […]
Netflixable? An over-the-top Turkish “Oliver Twist,” “Paper Lives”
Philadelphia (1993) Released: January 14th, 1994 Genre: Drama Director: Jonathan Demme Writers: Ron Nyswaner Cast: Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, Some spoilers do apply, but I try to keep the best parts of this film for you to witness Opening Thoughts: This film has long been respected as an incredible movie. A cut above the rest […]
Movie Review: Philadelphia (1993)
This movie most probably the most irritating movie in history for my nation. The movie, midnight Express is 1978 drama film based on Bill Hayes’s non-fictional book released in 1977, directed by Alan Parker and written by Oliver Stone who wrote the screenplay of this movie after he came back from Vietnam. The movie tells […]