There was a time when a new movie from Neil Jordan used to be a big deal. Back in the early ‘90s, the Irish writer/director won an Oscar (among five other nominations) for writing the screenplay for “The Crying Game.” His follow-up, 1994’s “Interview With the Vampire,” may not have received the same critical acclaim, but it did well at the box office and certainly captured the cultural zeitgeist with a cast that boasted Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. He saw even more success in his native country with the likes of “Michael Collins” and “Butcher Boy” in the late…
Author: Steve Katz
It’s notable that in the 25 years since “Groundhog Day” essentially invented a cinematic storytelling device, plenty of filmmakers have made their own take on the concept but no one has attempted to make a sequel. Whether it’s the Harold Ramis original, the sci-fi tinged “Edge of Tomorrow” or the 2011 thriller “Source Code,” all of these films have been self-contained experiences. It’s easy to see why; these movies are often just as much (if not more) about the gimmick as they are about the characters and their lives, so returning for a second helping is unlikely to have the…
Professional wrestling doesn’t have the strongest pedigree when it comes to movies. Films like “No Holds Barred” and “Ready to Rumble” were attempts to capitalize on various booms in the wrestling business (the Hulkamania era of the late 1980s and the WCW/WWF wars of the late 90s), but neither managed to impress even the most diehard fans, let alone bring new eyes into the fold. The best (and most accurate) wrestling movie, Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler,” doesn’t exactly paint the industry in the warmest light, as it chronicles the way it chews up and spits out even the biggest stars…
“The LEGO Movie” was one of the big surprises of 2014. It was yet another case of Christopher Miller and Phil Lord spinning silk into gold by turning a silly movie about LEGO into a transcendent and transgressive story about a young boy’s imagination being suffocated by his overbearing father. That spirit of joy and creativity was embodied by the powerfully naïve and optimistic Emmett (Chris Pratt), a builder who just wants to have fun and be friends with everyone. “The LEGO Movie” did extremely well at the box office, making a sequel inevitable, but the actual creation of that…
You would not be off base to see red flags all over the release of “Serenity,” the new film from Stephen Knight, the writer/director of “Locke” and showrunner of “Taboo” and “Peaky Blinders.” It boasts an impressive cast of award winners, including Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Djimon Hounsou, Diane Lane and Jason Clarke. It was slated to be released last September, the time of year that would allow for a movie without big studio backing to drum up some awards buzz before being drowned out by the deluge of prestige films unleashed in the fall months. It wasn’t really concerning…
In hindsight, we probably should have seen “Glass” coming. Even with the fall from grace that director M. Night Shyamalan endured through the likes of “The Happening,” “The Last Airbender” and “After Earth,” superhero movies are just too culturally omnipresent to avoid returning to the universe of his real-world superhero drama, “Unbreakable.” Of course, the way Shyamalan managed to do it by quietly making “Split,” his big comeback film of 2017, into a backdoor sequel to “Unbreakable” with a shock final scene isn’t exactly what anyone expected coming out of that movie, but the fires had been stoked, and the…
I feel like this year in movies really snuck up on me. It’s often the case that studios save the best for last, cramming all of their awards contenders into the final third of the year, but even many of the earlier releases on my list were movies I didn’t catch up with until the annual film critic tradition of watching as many movies as possible from October to December. It was a good year for movies, perhaps quietly so, but I can tell that’s the case from my agony that films like “Can You Ever Forgive Me?,” “The Favourite,”…
From a pop culture perspective, 2018 was undoubtedly the year of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The slight, spright 85-year-old Supreme Court justice has become a symbol of the resistance, a liberal bastion on a court under attack by the nomination and confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh in early October. A few months prior to that saw the release of “RBG,” a documentary by Julie Cohen and Betsy West that tracked Ginsburg’s rise from a young woman into the icon she’s become today. Her mythical status was increased just last month when she suffered three broken ribs in a fall and barely…
It’s safe to say Adam McKay’s interests as a director have changed over the last few years. The long-time comedy director of various Will Ferrell projects (“Anchorman,” “Talledega Nights,” “Step Brothers”) underwent a rather radical transformation into an activist filmmaker, the origins of which can be traced back to the end credits of “The Other Guys.” That movie was a silly buddy cop comedy, but the credits run over an animation that breaks down the causes and fallout of the 2008 financial crisis. Clearly, the topic struck a nerve with McKay, as he went on to write and direct “The…
It might be a bit telling that “Welcome to Marwen,” the new film from Robert Zemeckis, was not screened in time to be considered for many end-of-year critics awards. You’d think that if Universal had faith in it, they would have pushed for it hard. It has plenty going for it, including a big name like Zemeckis, a lead actor in Steve Carell who has been lavished with praise since embracing more dramatic roles, and a true story about a man who creates an intricate world out of dolls to escape past trauma. People should be lining up to see…