The Second Season of Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy dropped last Friday, and it’s pretty good. Based upon a Dark Horse comic written by Gerald Way and Gabriel Bá, Season Two begins where last season ended, which is to say that the students of the Umbrella Academy fail at their attempt to stop the Apocalypse. Number […]
I genuinely enjoyed Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man, despite being almost equally irritated by the movie in various ways. Though the worst transgression as far as I’m concerned is that it’s an “Invisible Man” movie where the invisible man is a secondary character in what’s typically – or should be – his own story. That […]
All I need to say about Ant Timpson’s Come To Daddy is that it co-stars the brilliant Stephen McHattie, Hollywood’s go-to actor when you want a vaguely sinister older white person in your movie. With a face like a worn leather saddle and a voice like rusty hinges, he has to rank among the best […]
Women directors aren’t exactly a known quantity as far as action movies go, and I suspect that that’s less a commentary on their ability to do the job than preconceived notions about what they as women can and cannot do. And that’s a shame though it’s also a trend that’s beginning to change. And speaking […]
Have you heard of the idea of “the magical negro?” The phrase revolves around the idea that oftentimes – less so now, I think – black people in movies are treated as almost magical beings, like leprechauns, dispensing folksy knowledge, wisdom and little else. It’s a dehumanizing way of depicting black people for directors that […]
I don’t think I’m being hyperbolic when I say that Mike Flanagan is among the best – if not the best – directors currently working in horror. And you likely noticed that “Mike Flanagan” isn’t either Guillermo Del Toro, James Wan or Andy Muschietti. And that’s because Del Toro – while never far from the […]
Looking at Dominique Rocher’s The Night Eats The World in a somewhat cursory fashion, you might assume that it’s a copy of Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later. Sure, it takes place in Paris, while 28 Days Later calls the UK home. The latter revolves around a man named Jim (Cillian Murphy), who wakes up in […]
If you ask me the entire point of a prequel – be it a movie, television series or whatever – is to elaborate on, to build upon. what currently exists. I mean, as much hate as is typically thrown at Exorcist II: The Heretic (a favorite of mine) – which is technically a sequel though […]
Boots Riley’s Sorry To Bother You is an ambitious movie, way more ambitions that anything a first-time director has any right to tackle (prior Riley co-directed a short with Chris Wroubel). Lakeith – or is that “LaKeith? – Stanfield (Knives Out) is Cassius Green, a guy who’s moving through life in a perpetual state of […]
The first entry in the long-running American Horror Story franchise – it’s been on the air for nine years and apparently going strong – I saw was Murder House, and I hated it. It’s been awhile though what stuck with me was the trashiness of the whole enterprise, which is why it’s taken me nine […]
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