Posted in August 2017

The 50 Best Samurai Films of All Time

The 50 Best Samurai Films of All Time

Samurai! So many samurai! Samurai all day long in this list of samurai films, I’m telling you. They’re even categorized based on the era of Japanese history in which they take place. That’s badass. Like a samurai. My name appears a bunch of times in this piece, and it’s such a well-researched, well-curated piece that I’ll … Continue reading

Review: Beach Rats, 2017, dir. Eliza Hittman

Review: Beach Rats, 2017, dir. Eliza Hittman

There’s a component of familiarity in Beach Rats, a movie about a young man performing heteronormative masculinity, but the familiarity is muffled by Eliza Hittman’s directing style; she’s one of a kind, and so is her movie, the first she’s made in the last few years after debuting with the superb It Felt Like Love.  Beach Rats … Continue reading

The Defenders Proves That We Need Fewer Superhero Teamups

The Defenders Proves That We Need Fewer Superhero Teamups

Maybe I’m the wrong person to write about superhero stuff in 2017. Guys, really: I just can’t watch superhero things without finding big philosophical flaws in their makeup and intent. I’m afraid to sit through the second season of Jessica Jones when it airs next year, even, though then again, Jessica is the best thing about The Defenders, … Continue reading

Review: Lemon, 2017, dir. Janicza Bravo

Review: Lemon, 2017, dir. Janicza Bravo

Here it is, at long last (that is, if you think six months qualifies as “long”): My review of Janicza Bravo’s excellent debut feature film, Lemon, a chronicle of defective but self-aggrandizing whiteness, starring Bravo’s husband Brett Gelman (also serving here as co-writer; they’re a real team).  There are reasons and then some why I like … Continue reading

TV Review: Get Shorty

TV Review: Get Shorty

There’s an internal debate raging in the pop culture center of my brain as to whether Epix’s new show, Get Shorty, is actually as good as I think it is, based on its existence as the second adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s 1990 novel (the first being, of course, 1995’s Get Shorty); I’m still mulling over whether it’s … Continue reading

When a Horror Movie Shows Too Much

When a Horror Movie Shows Too Much

Let me tell you a story about a guy named me who just got his first piece up in The Hollywood Reporter. It was a good piece, and in fact still is, and you should go read it. I’m not sure what else I’m doing here, really. I’m too excited by my THR debut. Sue … Continue reading