Sunday, September 29, 2019

Do you want to build a snowman?


ABOMINABLE

Terrific visuals and rock-solid emotional underpinnings overcome the weaknesses of a wonky story structure and some seriously terrible kid's komedy.

2019
Written and directed by Jill Culton

Spoiler alert: mild

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

And I've heard it might not even be gluten free


SOYLENT GREEN

Soylent Green is a masterpiece, and I kind of wish it wasn't.

1973
Directed by Richard Fleischer
Written by Stanley R. Greenberg (based on the novel Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison)

Spoiler alert: get real

Friday, September 20, 2019

Ad nauseam


AD ASTRA

Here's James Gray's masterclass on how to ruin a movie that was perfectly above-average until he got to it in post.

2019
Directed by James Gray
Written by Ethan Gross and James Gray

Spoiler alert: moderate

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Walt Disney, part XVIII: That's right! It's a measure of length!


20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA

So let's see what happens when you take the travelogue, the anti-imperial themes, and the breathless enthusiasm for made-up science out of Jules Verne's anti-imperialist science-fiction travelogue.  Is it still good?  Surprisingly, very slightly yes, but not much.

1954
Directed by Richard Fleischer
Written by Earl Felton (based on the novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne)

Spoiler alert: moderate

Monday, September 16, 2019

Drone shot


DOMINO

It really hasn't been De Palma's best century.

2019
Directed by Brian De Palma
Written by Petter Skavlan

Spoiler alert: moderate

It follows


IT: CHAPTER TWO

Second verse, same as the first.  And that's not necessarily a bad thing.

2019
Directed by Andy Muschietti
Written by Gary Dauberman (based on the novel It by Stephen King)

Spoiler alert: moderate

Wednesday, September 11, 2019

Walt Disney, part XVII: A boy's best friend is his mother


PETER PAN

Essentially everything that could be wrong with a mid-century Disney film rolled into a single package, to die might actually have been a bigger adventure than it is (though given that is only 75 minutes, I quite manfully gutted it out).

1953
Directed by Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, and Hamilton Luske

Spoiler alert: he never grows up