Analysis

The movie version of The Wiz was released October 24, 1978. I was released in December of the same year. So, you could say we’ve grown up together. The Wiz came to represent different things,…

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems that Hollywood today has a significant percentage of British people. Maybe it’s always been like that and I’ve just never noticed, but I feel like England is trying…

Spoiler alert: Wish Upon sucks. Well, realistically, that’s not a spoiler because everyone knows that it’s true. The high-concept horror flick from 2017 crashed and burn in amazing fashion, becoming a fan favorite as a comedy rather than a…

Let’s be honest: Twilight (2008) sucked, in more ways than one (but you already knew that). A movie about teenage vampires had so much potential and it was squandered on a terrible storyline with paper-thin characters. While…

It’s October, fools. Time to get spooky. I’m going to be completely honest right now: I hate horror movies. I don’t like being scared. I could barely watch Gremlins (1984) because I am such a naive, impressionable…

There’s been a lot of stir lately about the famous caped hero we call Batman. We’ve been given a look at our new Joker, Joaquin Phoenix, and Zack Snyder, director of the most recent Batman…

Phil Hartman was a truly multi-talented entertainer, perhaps best known for his work on television. After all, Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons, and NewsRadio are what made him a household name. However, one should not…

The 70s must have been quite the time to be livin in. Yes, L-I-V-I-N. Well, I actually don’t know since I am a 90s baby, but I can get an idea of what it was…

With skilled acting, the comedy and tragedy in the story, and a quick succession of events at the start, The Motive (or El Autor in its native Spain) almost instantly pulls you in. As the…

This article pitting Singin’ in the Rain vs. It’s a Wonderful in the Best vs. the Best series was originally published on reelreader.com, a great website for discussing pop culture and entertainment.  We are back by…

The new The Girl in the Spider’s Web trailer has dropped. It’s sloppy, unschooled and throws into sharp relief every weakness that the impeccable first trailer succeeded in concealing. Here are the most immediate problems. Point…

If you’re into independent film, and, more specifically, A24 films, odds are that you saw First Reformed earlier this year. It’s even more likely that this film hypnotized you into a state of deep contemplation. If you…

With the release of White Boy Rick this week and roles in two other movies this month, it brings a total of eight movies already released this year featuring one of Hollywood’s hardest working actors:…

After expanding wide into theaters following a limited release last weekend, Searching has become a late-summer, sleeper hit of sorts. Given its buzzy premise and presentation (that being a crime thriller that takes place completely on a…

The following article was previously published on June 21st, 2018 following the release of the first trailer for The Nun. Now, with The Nun hitting theaters this weekend, let’s take another deep dive into the Conjuring Universe and…

I mean, a female James Bond? The feminists are taking over! 007 theme plays I’m an adult virgin! For those of you who aren’t vine-savvy, this would be what I’m quoting: Yes, I am the kind…

The crime/gangster sub-genre contains in itself an anachronistic library of classically defining workings. Historically, the genre seemed to have generally trickled down in relevance, peeking relatively fast but also plateauing in equal measure. It laid…

Traditionally, when people think about going to the movies they think of groups of people or a couple on a date. Rarely — or never — do people think about someone going to the movies…

Throughout my life, I’ve always believed that movies can have far-reaching effects. We’ve all experienced the influence of movies firsthand. When I was ten years old, Step Up 3 (2010) was the film that convinced me that…

This year, 2018, marks the 200th anniversary of the publication of Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. The classic novel was written as a parlor game in 1816, the year without a summer, by a teenage…

The late great George A. Romero is mostly known for his Dead Series, particularly the first three, starting from the black/white shocker Night of the Living Dead, followed by the most famous Dawn of the Dead…

I recently rewatched Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 classic, Vertigo, because it made it onto TCM’s list of Fathom events in celebration of its 60th anniversary. In my childhood, I saw the film at least four or…

Sometimes a movie catches you at exactly the right moment; a sweet spot of time, place, and circumstance where you’ll buy whatever that movie is selling. I watched Cocktail when I was a teenager at a…

In a time where every franchise is rising to the top the of the box office, Mission: Impossible is following that trend strongly, and Paramount hopes that this continues into the future as they sorely need…

If The Equalizer 2 (2018) seems familiar, let’s figure out why.  A fun game to play is to see how many other films you can identify in this movie — and there’s a lot of…

We are just over a week away from the release of the sixth installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise. It is mind-blowing to me that this series has survived this long. Like a fine wine,…

Well, I did it. I drove to a Goodwill donation center a few days ago, and dropped off the majority of my Woody Allen DVD collection. I didn’t want to sell them (it didn’t feel…

At Williamstown, Massachusetts, this fourth of July, the local independent movie theater, Images Cinema, displayed a collection of short films that premiered at Sundance this year, currently being shown in a number of theaters around…

One of the most peculiar reviews of Roger Ebert’s career is of the 1986’s horror thriller The Hitcher. The Hitcher is about a young man named Jim Halsey (C. Thomas Howell) who escapes the clutches…

You may not have heard the name Thomasin McKenzie but it won’t be long before you are seeing her everywhere. McKenzie’s performance in Leave No Trace (2018) is receiving rave reviews after debuting at the Sundance Film…