Wearily Wading Through Avatar: The Way of Water
Avatar: The Way of Water is a monument to James Cameron’s business model but stutters on every other artistic or dramatic criterion imaginable.
Fantasy
Batman: Unfinished Business
Batman reflects the charm and the cost of a script that was not properly finished. But its lead and its meticulous visual design still enchant.
Batman Returns: Action Fairytale
Tim Burton’s Batman Returns is a dark Christmas fable, an action fairytale. It’s the whole experience of reading comics in one painful, beautiful mythology.
The Legend of Zelda and the Fantasy Feeling: Do Video Games Have to Be Art?
On its anniversary, The Legend of Zelda is a still-brilliant piece of fantasy fiction and a discussion piece for the question of video games as art.
Zack Snyder vs Superman: Why Intent Became Conflict in Man of Steel
A response to Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel as well as to the debates about it, including both its problematic execution and its honest desire for greatness.
The Santa Clause 2: Carefree Christmas
The Santa Clause 2 has Tim Allen’s standup and farting reindeer, but it feels like Christmas. Let me explain why I keep watching it.
The White Reindeer: A Myth of Innocence
The White Reindeer is equal parts history, horror, and fairytale – a myth of innocence, in a landscape of snow and terror.
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.
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: Magic Perspective
My Neighbor Totoro may not be Miyazaki’s best work, but it’s his quiet thesis. And one of the most magical things ever drawn.
Sleepy Hollow: High Homage
Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow is an underappreciated throwback horror gem. Chilly, cheesy, and sometimes completely beautiful.
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.