Enemy: The Right Wrong Man
An analysis of Villeneuve’s dreamy thriller, Hitchcock accelerated to spiritual attack speed. Arachnophobes beware.
M.C. Myers
Ad Astra: Space Melodrama
Ad Astra attempts to be a space opera and family melodrama. Failing both becomes additive – even its best intentions seem misplaced from other films.
Midsommar Director’s Cut: Empowerment Horror
Ari Aster’s Midsommar shows the dark side of empowerment, which is its main success. That so many consider it a self-help film is its main curiosity.
Popeye: Robert Altman – De-Animator
Robert Altman’s adaptation of Popeye feels more like a redaction. His serious silly world is more interesting as a failure than enjoyable as a living cartoon.
1917: Tech Epic
1917 is a capable demonstration of technology matched to an overreaching story. Exactly what meets the eye.
Conan the Barbarian: The Days of Working Out
Conan the Barbarian throws itself into the brutal past, wielding its actor’s charm like a broadsword. Only plot conventions are strong enough to hurt him.
Inglorious Basterds: Killer Cover-Up
Inglorious Basterds resurrects the best in war films while ignoring the worst in war. The result is wrathful Tarantino magic.
Hello, Dolly! Love, Inverted
Hello, Dolly! takes Gene Kelly’s penchant for grinning and perverts it with feel-bad romantic philandering. A charming play becomes a genre-killer.
Dragonslayer: Fairytale Performance
Dragonslayer has the texture of the old fables. It finds adventure in a stricken world, including a lot of horror for the characters. And delight for us.
Alice Through the Looking Glass: To the Anti-Wonder
Alice Through the Looking Glass is to wonderment what purging is to eating. It not only robs you of your meal – it even makes you regret it.
My Neighbor Totoro: Perspectives on Magic
My Neighbor Totoro may not be Miyazaki’s best film, but it’s a quiet little thesis on his worldview. And it’s one of the most magical things ever drawn.
Alien: A Love of Sex Monsters
The horror in Alien is as disquietingly personal as any sci-fi epic ever made. This is the genre’s ultimate masterclass in turning style into story.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Reluctant Romance
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is one romance that counts as all of them. Reluctance becomes the ultimate fantasy.
Sleepy Hollow: High Homage
Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow is an underappreciated throwback horror gem. Chilly, cheesy, and sometimes completely beautiful.
The Happening: Hitchcockian Plodder
The Happening was supposed to be Shyamalan’s take on Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The only thing that got snatched was more of his own appeal.
Why It’s Time to Retire the Term, “Mary Sue”
The term “Mary Sue” now seems to cause more arguments than it resolves. Exploring what it really means becomes evidence that it should be retired.
A Fistful of Dollars: Neo Bravo
A Fistful of Dollars is a samurai movie moved to the frontier. It loses nothing in the transition. And it gains the best staring in film history.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife Trailer Reaction: Nostalgia Manipulation
So far, Ghostbusters: Afterlife predictably displays far more affection for Ghostbusters’ furniture and its copyright logo than for the way the film felt.
Primal Fear: Open-and-Open Case
Primal Fear reuses courtroom thriller tropes without revising them. But the cast makes them live again, at least as the ultimate TNT cable drama.
Paddington 2: Steamboat Bear Jr.
Paddington 2 sparkles with manners and a belief in beauty. Everyone was opening the doors for each other on the way out of the theater.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: Homemade Magic
The first Harry Potter film is not an epic but an invitation. Dark as a forest. Nice as a librarian. Warm as a fireplace.
Catch Me If You Can: Con Life
Frank Abagnale conned the world out of millions of dollars and himself out of a normal life. Catch Me If You Can cons us into loving him for it.
Hulk: Comic Myths and the Monster in Us
Hulk is a Marvel film made from spirituality and angry power. Nothing it does wrong can stop its difference from being beautiful.