Author: Rob Dean

“When love leaves the world, all hearts are still. Tell them of my love, and tell them of my pain, and tell them of my hope, which still lives. For this is all I have and all I am and all I ask.” – Stephen King How do we go on after experiencing a major loss? This seems to be the question that permeated most films in 2021. While it’s an incredibly topical question given that almost 3.8 million people have died from COVID-19, not to mention the millions who have lost jobs or housing due to the pandemic, many…

It’s difficult to criticize something while also being that thing you’re critiquing. “The Matrix Resurrections” is a rebootquel, mirroring the original 1999 film through multiple callbacks in visuals, dialogue and plot. However, the new movie from director/co-writer Lana Wachowski also ponders the role that nostalgia plays in our lives and the constant need to revisit the stories we love, even when it drains them of meaning. All those visual cues and pieces of fan service used by the likes of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” and “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” can be fun, as they attempt to trick audiences into thinking that…

I honestly don’t know what to say about “The King’s Man.” It’s weird in all the bad ways. It’s sloppy with pacing and tone, trying to meld fun superspy hijinks with the horrific, senseless tragedy of war, and the fights (with a few exceptions) are boring. If I were to say that most of the characters are one-dimensional, it would be giving them one extra level of depth. The plot is also incredibly obvious, and there’s a stinger that sets up World War II with the reveal of… Adolph Hitler. You know, the guy from World War II. I assumed…

Who is your Dracula? James Bond? Superman? For comic book readers, this has been something to consider for many years, as different writers and artists have taken over iconic characters and put their own stamps on them, maybe drastically altering the look, origin or even alter-ego of the beloved superhero whose name graces the cover. Meanwhile, in the adaptive space, there have been about a dozen different actors in these roles. With each iteration comes a different set of sensibilities that tend to reflect their times and the artists behind them. The easiest example of this is Batman, from the…

Film reviews are curious things. While many people will take the time to read through this whole piece, others will simply look at the star rating and move on. Of course, this “bottom line” tendency has been exacerbated by Rotten Tomatoes and other aggregate sites that force a false binary of Good or Bad, further eliminating whatever nuance remains. So, when a mixed bag movie like “West Side Story” comes along, people may be aghast at the low rating for a Steven Spielberg adaptation of a beloved musical (or perhaps horrified at how highly I’ve rated it). Spielberg’s “West Side…

It took a bit under 11 years for the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) to have to start retconning their own stories and canon. Those familiar with comic books know that, in terms of what Marvel and DC put out, that’s a relatively long stretch before tweaking history. But with “Thor: Ragnarok” revealing that the Infinity Gauntlet in Odin’s treasure room was fake, or “Shang-Chi” reversing the Mandarin twist of “Iron Man 3,” or almost the entirety of “Black Widow,” the MCU has started to realize that a decade-plus of serialized storytelling requires changing what’s been established to move forward. This…

The adage “familiarity breeds contempt” doesn’t always hold true, as it omits how much comfort can be found in the conventional. Whether it’s old episodes of “The Twilight Zone,” slasher movies or Hollywood musicals of the 1940s, there are many genres and subgenres that have their unique tropes and predictable arcs with which viewers can be well accustomed but still find entertaining in their formulaic approach. From Aristotle to Christopher Booker, many academics have argued that there are a limited number of plots that can be told (from a big picture perspective), and so an audience’s enjoyment is less due…

With “House of Gucci,” director Ridley Scott has delivered one of the greatest pieces of camp filmmaking in decades. As a style, camp is incredibly hard to define and even harder to pull off. Susan Sontag said that “[the] essence of Camp is its love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration.” And yet, one can think of many failed, indulgent productions filled with caricatures instead of characters and even distinct visual flair that one would never refer to as campy. Though perhaps the best definition is along the lines of Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s infamous line about pornography:…

Who is “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” for, exactly? It’s not a remake, as it’s tied to the 1984 and 1989 “Ghostbusters” films, yet as a sequel, it spends roughly a third of its runtime with characters mostly unaware of who the Ghostbusters are. “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” then, is a rebootquel of sorts — a seemingly “fresh start” for a franchise that introduces a new generation of characters while being connected to previous entries in an attempt to appeal to younger audiences and nostalgic folks alike. But even in that context, “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” — which is directed by Jason Reitman, whose father Ivan helmed…

Based on the 1929 Nella Larsen novel of the same name, “Passing” concerns Irene (Tessa Thompson) and Clare (Ruth Negga), two light-skinned Black women who grew up together in Harlem and reunite years later. Though Irene identifies as African American and is married to a black doctor named Brian (André Holland), Clare “passes” for white, unbeknownst to her wealthy (and outspokenly racist) husband, John (Alexander Skarsgård), with whom she has a child. While trying to maintain her relative upper-class lifestyle — complete with a maid/cook (Ashley Ware Jenkins), various societies and social functions, and vain attempts to shield her children…