‘Silence’ Review: Martin Scorsese Is Messing With Us, But Is It Worth The Pain?
Silence subtly subverts the insidious narrative of meaningful misery that’s so ubiquitous in Western (and Christian) culture.
Margot Robbie and Selena Gomez Explain the Global Financial Crisis in The Big Short
“Truth is like poetry. And most people fucking hate poetry.” The above quote appears roughly midway through The Big Short, Adam McKay’s star-studded, irreverent take on 2008’s global financial crisis. It’s an effective encapsulation of a film that operates as the rare piece of ‘edutainment’ that’s both legitimately educational and entertaining while providing a self-reflexive…
The Revenant Pairs Physical Brutality with Moral Simplicity
Alejandro González Iñárritu’s The Revenant sets out to chart the farthest frontiers of humanity, stranding Leonardo DiCaprio’s bearded, badly-wounded protagonist in the wintery American wilderness and closely observing his desperate quest for survival …and revenge. When The Revenant focuses on the minutiae of survival in the wild – from cauterizing one’s wounds with burning grass…
Revolutionary Road (2008)
I don’t like to read books before watching their cinematic adaptations, because I tend to come down more harshly on the film due to the baggage of expectations. Such is the case with Sam Mendes’ interpretation of Richard Yates’ Revolutionary Road. The strength of novel is that its critique of fifties suburbia is elevated by…
The 86th Academy Awards – Predictions and Thoughts
I’m not really that interested in getting too caught up in the Oscars fol-de-rol that consumes the critical community around this time of year. I read a lot about the Academy Awards because, well, it’s people getting passionate about film! People arguing emphatically about which film is better and the industry, about who will win…
Double Feature: Paprika (2006) and Inception (2010)
(Double Feature is a series of “double length” (400-word) posts where I’ll discuss two related pop culture artifacts) Inception was a critical and commercial success, a cerebral blockbuster nonetheless filled with action. It’s unique in that it’s successful, high budget film from the last decade that’s based on an original idea. The film has even…
Django Unchained (2012)
Quentin Tarantino and the spaghetti western genre should be a perfect match. Spaghetti westerns are essentially a feature length excuse for a bunch of cool shit to happen, with the plot often obscured through half-heard snatches of dialogue and cryptic flashbacks. And Tarantino is a noted connoisseur of cool shit! The two should be incredible…
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