Send in the Clown
Andy Muschietti’s adaptation of Stephen King’s It is all (carnival) bark and no bite
I read Stephen King’s It when it came out in 1986, and even if that’s suddenly a hell of a long time ago, I do … Continue reading
Film: Page 21
Whiteout in Wyoming
An unlikely pair of agents investigates a murder on the Indian reservation in Wind River
My favorite moment in writer-director Taylor Sheridan’s new thriller Wind River comes at the very end of the film. Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner), a Fish … Continue reading
The Long Nap
A stand-up comedian deals with a girlfriend in a coma in The Big Sick
The Big Sick is an odd duck. As a romantic comedy, it is neither very romantic nor particularly funny, despite the fact that one of … Continue reading
Like Father Like Daughter Like Sister Like All
A family in crisis struggles to reconnect in Gillian Robespierre’s pitch-perfect new comedy Landline
About 20 or 30 minutes into writer-director Gillian Robespierre’s new film Landline, I started tearing up, and I continued tearing up intermittently throughout the rest … Continue reading
Not Just Black and White
Kathryn Bigelow’s Detroit offers a historical critique of modern-day police brutality
There is a tendency in Hollywood to profit from Black suffering — think 12 Years a Slave, The Help, Django Unchained. These films are prevalent, … Continue reading
These Violent Delights
Charlize Theron fights to hold together a flimsy plot in Atomic Blonde
I went to see Atomic Blonde twice — in part because, halfway through the first viewing, I realized I wasn’t paying attention to the plot. … Continue reading
War is Hell
Director Christopher Nolan once again achieves greatness in the beautiful and haunting Dunkirk
A masterpiece can be a hard thing to overcome, especially when it occurs early in an artist’s career. For my money, director Christopher Nolan’s second … Continue reading
Bad Habits
Naked nuns and Aubrey Plaza can’t save the depressingly unfunny satire of The Little Hours
Where to begin with The Little Hours, a new comedy written and directed by Jeff Baena and based on Boccaccio’s 1353 masterpiece The Decameron? The … Continue reading
Portrait of the hero as a young man
Spiderman: Homecoming takes our friendly neighborhood web-slinger back to his New York roots
It’s oddly easy to forget how important Spider-Man is to the current superhero movie bonanza. 2002’s Spider-Man was the first movie with a $100-million opening … Continue reading
American Lazarus
Sam Elliott shines as a washed-up actor confronting his own mortality in The Hero
You know the voice: a burbling purple baritone hung like a bass note plucked by the hand of God, a testosterone lullaby, a heavenly man-purr, … Continue reading