Hustlers Takes Gangster Movies All the Way to the Strip Club
Hustlers is not only a raucously entertaining riff on gangster tropes – it also has its own perspective.
I, Tonya Comes in Second Place to Scorsese
I, Tonya might be a love letter to disgraced former ice skater Tonya Harding, but it’s also a love letter to Martin Scorsese.
Production Woes Plague The Snowman’s Serial Killer Schlock
The Snowman is an unmitigated disaster.
‘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.
Burgers and Lies: The Founder Repackages the Corrupt Capitalism Biopic
The movie about a man who achieved success by stealing other people’s ideas borrows liberally from other films itself.
A Bigger Splash (2015)
A Bigger Splash is a distinctly musical film. It’s a music film, too – with Tilda Swinton channelling her versatile Bowie charisma as a world-famous rockstar and Ralph Fiennes exhibiting some irrepressible dance moves as a record producer – but what makes the film sing is how director Luca Guadagnino effortlessly bridges its distinct tones.…
Joy (2015)
Watching David O. Russell’s Joy is akin to watching his career: abundant potential dribbling sadly away. The first half hour or so of the film, a biopic of Joy Mangano, Miracle Mop inventor (Jennifer Lawrence), takes the kind of stuff usually brushed over in these films – the anxieties of running household, familial tensions, financial…
The Past is Unwrapped in Joel Edgerton’s The Gift
The Gift opens on ominous shots of an abandoned, modernist mansion, grey stone and brown wood gleaming dully in the afternoon L.A. sun. Soon, Simon (Jason Bateman) and Robyn (Rebecca Hall), a professional couple from Chicago, will be escorted through the hollow house by a real estate agent. But for now it lies dormant, the…
Critical Dissent: Debating A Most Violent Year with Stephen A Russell
A Most Violent Year, the third film from Oscar-nominated director J.C. Chandor, has received a generally positive reaction from the critical community, earning 90% on Rotten Tomatoes (if you care about that kinda thing) along with a Best Supporting Actress (Drama) Golden Globe nom for Jessica Chastain. I was certainly in the “generally positive” camp…
Nightcrawler (2014)
Let me introduce you to Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal). Who is Lou Bloom? Well, in his own words, he’s a hard worker. He sets high goals and he’s been told that he’s persistent. He’s looking for a job, and now he’s thinking that television news might be something that he could love as well as…
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