Asteroid City
SimilarStalker (1979),
Watch afterIndiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023),
Oppenheimer (2023) The Flash (2023),
StarringFisher Stevens, Willem Dafoe,
About twenty miles or so outside of Marfa, Texas, there’s a mural dedicated to the production of George Stevens’ Giant. Big wooden standees display James Dean with his arms draped over a rifle, framing him in the iconic Christ pose which would be the last image to represent Dean in the public consciousness before he died. Giant is about a great number of things, though, fittingly, what resonates all these years later is its ideas about the passing of time. Continue Reading →
Scream VI
SimilarCube (1997), Cube Zero (2004), Maria Full of Grace (2004), Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead (1995),
Watch afterAnt-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023), Evil Dead Rise (2023),
StarringJack Quaid, Josh Segarra,
The Scream franchise's strength has always been in its self-awareness. Initially, it turned the camera towards the audience, demanding that they ask themselves why it's so entertaining to see other people being made to suffer, and what happens if, as the tagline went, someone took their love of scary movies too far. Then it mocked the inevitability of sequels, then the movie industry in general, then how the media treats trauma victims like celebrities, with varying levels of success. The 2022 reboot, directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, sought to address all of it in some fashion, with toxic fandom on top of that. It was mostly successful, despite being at times aggressively meta. Scream VI does much of the same, although this time the knowing winks and nods are starting to feel a little tired. Continue Reading →
Willow
SimilarBlack Scorpion, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles,
Willow didn’t catch on as a pop culture phenomenon like fellow Lucasfilm properties Star Wars and Indiana Jones upon its release. Still, it did ultimately achieve cult status. In these IP-obsessed times, that made a return to its fantasy realm all but inevitable. After all, Disney is giving every nostalgic property it owns a streaming sequel. Continue Reading →
Spider-Man: No Way Home
How Marvel's latest cuts through the MCU trappings to deliver one of Spidey's most personal stories yet.
Please note that this article contains MAJOR SPOILERS for Spider-Man: No Way Home.
If you consume enough Spider-Man stories, you start to notice the malleability of the character. The assorted movies, shows, video games, and comic books all have their different takes on the wall-crawler and can plausibly plop him into different settings and moods. But you’ll also witness the two central aspects of Peter Parker that unite the various versions of the character across eras and mediums: (1) he chooses to do good, even when it’s hard, because he knows it’s the right thing to do, and (2) he suffers mightily for it. Continue Reading →
The French Dispatch
SimilarBorat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006),
Boys Don't Cry (1999) Driving Miss Daisy (1989), My Own Private Idaho (1991), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004),
Watch afterThe Power of the Dog (2021),
StarringFisher Stevens, Owen Wilson, Toheeb Jimoh, Willem Dafoe,
StudioSearchlight Pictures,
This review is part of our coverage of the 2021 Chicago International Film Festival. Continue Reading →