Visions of a Vision in Knock at the Cabin
M. Night Shyamalan continues his winning streak with a well-acted high-concept thriller about the end-times. It’s more smoke than fire though.
Based on a Book
Missing Morals in Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio shimmers with excited physical energy but never coordinates its new story ideas with its old moral responsibilities.
Misadapting Terror in The Pale Blue Eye
The Pale Blue Eye has the cast of a masterpiece and the script of a write-off. It’s inoffensive afternoon viewing, but Poe would have his name removed from it.
Why Scrooge (1951) is the Best Version of A Christmas Carol
The 1951 version of Scrooge effortlessly recreates its candleglow world. This classic story has never been better.
Dramatic Gaps and Tech Obsessions in The Shining
The unassailable influence of Stanley Kubrick’s horror staple hides its dramatic shortcomings behind an illusion of prestige.
Cyrano (2021) – Glossing Over a Classic
Peter Dinklage is a powerful force for good in an otherwise listless adaptation that misinterprets whatever it doesn’t omit entirely.
Locating Realism in The Revenant
The Revenant is a powerful statement on cinematic realism affected but not marred by its real toil. It’s old cinema made epic again.
Zodiac: Memories of Murmur
The 15th anniversary of Zodiac is the perfect occasion to revisit David Fincher’s best film and see how the thriller epic holds up in 2022.
First Man: Cultural Breakthrough
With First Man, Damien Chazelle takes us to space and still thinks the most important things are the ones we left behind. The best film of 2018.
Brooklyn: Cautious Fairytale
Brooklyn is a well-meaning new version of the kind of movie we used to make much more easily. It’s not masterful, but at least it’s respectable.
Enemy: The Right Wrong Man
An analysis of Villeneuve’s dreamy thriller, Hitchcock accelerated to spiritual attack speed. Arachnophobes beware.
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.
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.
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.