492 Best Releases From the Genre Comedy (Page 2)
Snow
SimilarA Christmas Carol (1938), Apocalypse Now (1979), Batman Returns (1992), Ben-Hur (1959), Billy Elliot (2000), Brazil (1985), Contact (1997), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Finding Forrester (2000), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), I Am Not a Serial Killer (2016), Metropolis (1927), Sahara (2005), Scrooge (1951), Shooter (2007), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), Talk to Her (2002), The Apartment (1960), The Art of Racing in the Rain (2019), The Bridges of Madison County (1995), The Holiday (2006), The Last Emperor (1987), The Party 2 (1982), The Tin Drum (1979), Wonder Boys (2000),
Watch afterAquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023), Interstellar (2014), Leave the World Behind (2023), Napoleon (2023),
Oppenheimer (2023) Poor Things (2023), Saltburn (2023),
J.A. Bayona directs a heartbreaking adaptation of a true-life tale of tragedy & miracles.
Though we joke about the smallest inconveniences rendering us helpless, in truth the human will to survive cannot be underestimated. When confronted with imminent death, we can and will resort to extreme means to escape it, sometimes in ways that might shock and horrify those who weren’t there. One such story was Aron Ralston, a hiker who was forced to break and cut his own arm off after he was trapped by a fallen boulder, as depicted in 2010’s 127 Hours. Another was a 1972 plane crash in the Andes mountains, after which the survivors, faced with subzero temperatures, no food, and no plant life or animals to be found, eventually resorted to cannibalism to avoid starvation.
The Andes plane crash story was adapted for film a number of times, including the trashy, exploitative Survive!, and 1993’s competently made but whitewashed Alive, in which Ethan Hawke was cast as a character named Nando Parrado. Now J.A. Bayona, whose 2012 film The Impossible was also a harrowing tale of survival, takes a turn with Society of the Snow, a gripping, heart-wrenching look at the emotional toll such an unthinkable event takes on those who somehow came out of it alive, if not exactly well. Continue Reading →
Jul i Blodfjell
When you’re done watching the usual stuff, consider one of these very bizarre attempts at holiday cheer.
When AMC released their holiday programming lineup this year, it seemed like an attempt at a joke: in addition to a handful of aging comedies that have nothing to do with Christmas (or any other holiday for that matter), like Uncle Buck and Caddyshack, the now-ubiquitous Elf was scheduled to air no less than sixteen times in thirty days, and that wasn’t counting the December 2nd “anniversary celebration” marathon. Second to Elf was National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, scheduled to air twelve times. Filling out the remaining time not occupied by Elf or National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation was woeful C-tier fare nobody enjoyed the first time around, like Christmas With the Kranks and Fred Claus.
In the era of streaming, finding Christmas entertainment now requires keeping track of who has the rights to show what special or movie at any given time. Gone are the days of CBS airing A Charlie Brown Christmas every year for decades: now it's under the sole domain of Apple TV+. Its former companion How the Grinch Stole Christmas is available only on Peacock, and all manner of Muppet-related programming is exclusive to Disney+. If the pickings aren’t slim, then they’re disbursed like so much reindeer feed across multiple platforms. Continue Reading →
Poor Things
Similar2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), 28 Days Later (2002), 28 Weeks Later (2007), 9 Songs (2004), A Clockwork Orange (1971), Aladdin (1992), Aliens (1986), Amélie (2001), Annie Hall (1977), Armageddon (1998),
Bend It Like Beckham (2002) Blade Runner (1982) Contact (1997), Contempt (1963), Cruel Intentions (1999), Desert Hearts (1985), Dirty Dancing (1987), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), Forrest Gump (1994), M*A*S*H (1970), Manhattan (1979), Mars Attacks! (1996), Mary Poppins (1964), Match Point (2005), Metropolis (1927), Mystic River (2003), Once Upon a Time in America (1984),
Rebecca (1940) Shrek the Third (2007), Stalker (1979), Star Trek: First Contact (1996), The Art of Racing in the Rain (2019), The Bridges of Madison County (1995), The Elementary Particles (2006), The Handmaid's Tale (1990), The Holiday (2006), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), The Party (1980), The Science of Sleep (2006), True Romance (1993), Vertigo (1958), War of the Worlds (2005), What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), Wild at Heart (1990), Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971),
Watch afterAnatomy of a Fall (2023), Dune: Part Two (2024), Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), Saltburn (2023), Society of the Snow (2023), The Killer (2023),
StarringWillem Dafoe,
StudioFilm4 Productions, Searchlight Pictures, TSG Entertainment,
Yorgos Lanthimos directs a sumptuous adult fairy tale featuring Emma Stone at her very best.
Here’s the thing about Yorgos Lanthimos: you’re either on board with him, or you’re not. Even in The Favourite, arguably his most accessible film, there’s a sort of joyful grotesqueness to it, leaving the audience laughing and wincing simultaneously. His latest offering, Poor Things, is his most visually dazzling film yet, with moments of stunning beauty and bittersweet insight, but still isn’t afraid to test the audience’s sensibilities. It’s a film about what it means to be alive, every little disgusting aspect of it.
Based on Alasdair Gray’s novel of the same name, Poor Things opens in dreary black and white London, where eccentric scientist Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe) is overseeing an experiment that’s both miraculous and horrifying. Baxter, whose face looks like it was carved into several pieces and then put back together the wrong way, has brought a woman back to life after she committed suicide. The woman, whom he’s renamed Bella (Emma Stone, with a magnificent pair of eyebrows), initially has the mind of a toddler, but she’s learning and maturing at an astonishing rate. Bella refers to Godwin as “God,” and so far knows no one and nothing else but him and their home together. Continue Reading →
Obliterated
SimilarFlorida Man, Lupin,
Watch afterAhsoka, Gen V, Reacher,
Star Trek: Picard The Wheel of Time, True Detective,
Netflix’s action-comedy is deadly short on both.
There’s something undeniably attractive about the premise of Obliterated. A highly skilled team of soldiers, spies, bomb experts, and tech geniuses stop on nuclear bomb detonation in the heart of Las Vegas and fully celebrate their victory. And by fully celebrate, we mean FULLY. Drugs, alcohol, exotic animals, hundreds of guests, plenty of sex toys, and so on. Then they wake in the morning to find their mission wasn’t as successful as they thought, and now they have no choice but to try and save the day in various stages of loaded and hungover.
Sadly, miles exist between premise and execution. Think the difference between visiting the Bellagio in Vegas and the Tropicana in Atlantic City. Then double it. Maybe triple it. Put it another way, Obliterated is bad. Very bad. Continue Reading →
Slow Horses
Similar2Moons: The Series, A Dance to the Music of Time,
Agatha Christie's Poirot Animated Classics of Japanese Literature, Anna Karenina, Återkomsten, Babel,
Black Books Blackeyes, Bodies, Brimstone, Chuck, Cigarette Girl, Condor, Dancing on the Edge, Dark Winds, Des, Dexter, Erased, Fallen, Fearless, Further Tales of the City, Game of Thrones, Golden Years, Gossip Girl, Hero Return, Jack the Ripper, Jewels, KONOSUBA – An Explosion on This Wonderful World!, La Femme Nikita, La Mante, Lupin, Luther, M*A*S*H, Millennium, Moeder, waarom leven wij?, Monarch of the Glen, More Tales of the City, Mr. Mercedes, Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King, Nine: Nine Time Travels, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit,
Planet of the Apes Pride and Prejudice Roswell Sherlock Holmes Soul Land 2: The Peerless Tang Clan, Super Pumped, Tales from the Neverending Story, The 100, The Alienist, The Buccaneers, The Chestnut Man, The Equalizer, The Family Game, The Lost World, The Moon Embracing the Sun, The Shining, The Wimbledon Poisoner, Threshold, Tientsin Mystic, Tira, Troubles, Unorthodox, Unterleuten: The Torn Village, Viso d'angelo, Wedding Impossible, Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, Witchcraft, World's End Harem, Wycliffe,
The AppleTV+ spy series retains its humor but gives viewers its most tightly plotted effort yet.
Slow Horses Season 3 reiterates how the series differs from so many other TV shows. While critics frequently discuss film as a director’s medium, television tends to be more showrunner—and thus writer—driven. While Horses indeed derives many of its pleasures from the writers—the returning trio of Will Smith, Jonny Stockwood, and Mark Denton once again man the pens—each season’s unique tone owes to its single director.
James Hawes made the series’ debut season a workplace comedy where the occasional gun battle might break out. Season 2 darkened or ditched much of the comedy for a bleaker, higher action affair under the direction of Jeremy Lovering. In Slow Horses Season 3, Saul Metzstein doesn’t push the team back into the offices. If anything, Slough House appears even less than in Season 2. However, he does re-up some of the mismatched colleagues’ humor, particularly when it comes to the team’s most recent additions, gambling addict Marcus (Kadiff Kirwan) and drug addict Shirley (Aimee-Ffion Edwards). He also further deepens the emotional stakes with a light touch, adding depth to ever-growing complications. Continue Reading →
The Holdovers
SimilarApocalypse Now (1979), Brazil (1985), Donnie Brasco (1997), Driving Miss Daisy (1989), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Fargo (1996), Forrest Gump (1994), Full Metal Jacket (1987), GoodFellas (1990), Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), I Am Not a Serial Killer (2016), Monster (2003), Mystic River (2003), Oldboy (2003), Scrooge (1951), Shrek the Third (2007), Solaris (1972), The Apartment (1960), The Fisher King (1991), The Party 2 (1982), The Poseidon Adventure (1972), The Silent Partner (1978), To Die For (1995), Wonder Boys (2000),
Watch afterAmerican Fiction (2023), Anatomy of a Fall (2023),
Barbie (2023) Killers of the Flower Moon (2023),
Oppenheimer (2023) Poor Things (2023), Society of the Snow (2023), The Killer (2023), The Marvels (2023),
StarringGillian Vigman,
StudioMiramax,
After stumbling with Downsizing, Alexander Payne bounces back with a gentle & witty comedy-drama.
The artist Dmitry Samarov one said to me that the ratio of good to bad late periods in an artist's life was depressing to consider. For every Sir Edward William Elgar there was an Eric Clapton (my example, not his), and that it was rare to see someone sharpen as they aged. Now, I like Dmitry and certainly respect his opinion, but I can’t help but feel that when film overtook painting as the dominant artwork that people engage with, the ratio shifted towards bizarre experimentation and welcome self-reflection as much as dull self reflection.
Take for instance 62 year old Alexander Payne, who, after the biggest disaster of his career (2017’s confused parable Downsizing), has started his fourth decade as a director by leaning hard back into what he knew (and what the royal “we” enjoyed) and rediscovered himself with The Holdovers, a movie no one can seem to stop comparing to Hal Ashby. No mean feat, of course, but even that sells its virtues short. This is no mere homage, no mere return to form, this is the movie that Payne’s been hoping to make since his 90s heyday, a film that earns both its jaundiced gaze and its catharsis. Continue Reading →
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off
Similar4400, A Dance to the Music of Time, A Step Into The Past, Ah! My Goddess, Amazing Stories, Animated Classics of Japanese Literature, Astro Boy, Atomic Train, Ben 10: Omniverse, Christopher Columbus,
Doctor Who Eureka Seven Fallen, Family Guy, Flower Boy Next Door, Golden Years,
Hospital Playlist I Dream of Jeannie, Intruders, Kamen Rider, Lost Love in Times, Mortal Kombat: Conquest, My Holo Love, Nine: Nine Time Travels, Phil of the Future,
Planet of the Apes Power Rangers, Power Rangers Dino Force Brave, Prehistoric Park, Renegade, Scully, Sentimental Journey, Sonny Boy, Stand Up!!, Star-Crossed Lovers, Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The 4400, The Dead Zone, The Far Pavilions, The Fire Next Time, The Girl from Tomorrow, The Lost Recipe, The Sarah Jane Adventures, The Slime Diaries: That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, The Wallflower, Thunderstone, Ultraviolet, Wedding Impossible,
StarringKieran Culkin,
The ScienceSaru-produced animated series rebuilds rather than retells Bryan Lee O'Malley's beloved comic.
Late in the final volume of Bryan Lee O'Malley's 2004-2010 comic series Scott Pilgrim (Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour), once the action's done and the hateful Gideon Graves has been slain, protagonists Scott Pilgrim and Ramona Flowers take a moment to process everything. Defeating Gideon meant facing not only the vicious misogynist swordsman but also their respective character flaws (It's telling that one of Scott's key moments is his realizing just how alike he and Gideon are, and by gaining that understanding, he affirms that, yeah, Gideon has so got to die).
There are a few candidates for Scott's actual finest hour in Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour. His after-action conversation/reconciliation/renewal with Ramona is my pick. Bryan Lee O'Malley/Oni Press.
As Ramona says, change is one of life's constants, which applies to Scott Pilgrim's ventures into new mediums. Edgar Wright's thoroughly enjoyable movie shifted around characters and reworked some of Scott's flaws. The colorful, impeccably soundtracked, hair-tearingly difficult Ubisoft-produced video game ramped up the goofy save for one particularly pointed ending. And now, with the Netflix animated series Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, creator O'Malley—joined by co-writer and co-showrunner BenDavid Grabinski and animation studio ScienceSaru (with episode director Abel Góngora) have changed things up yet again. Rather than retell Scott Pilgrim as it's been since 2004 (a story already told, with riffs, as a comic, movie, and video game), the creative team opts for something more radical. It's a work as much in conversation with the Scott Pilgrim that came before as an adaptation. Continue Reading →
Trolls
SimilarAladdin (1992), Billy Elliot (2000), Chicago (2002), Dances with Wolves (1990), Dirty Dancing (1987), Enchanted (2007), Fantasia (1940), Forrest Gump (1994), Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), Ice Age (2002), Italian for Beginners (2000), Mary Poppins (1964), Moulin Rouge! (2001), Muriel's Wedding (1994), My Own Private Idaho (1991), Princess Mononoke (1997), Shall We Dance? (2004), Shrek (2001), Shrek 2 (2004), Shrek the Third (2007), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), Stranger Than Paradise (1984), The Terminal (2004), Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005), Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971),
Studio20th Century Fox,
The Trolls movies continue to indulge in their best and worst impulses in a third installment.
The poster for this past summer's R-rated comedy No Hard Feelings had a reasonably clever tagline to explain the strained dynamic between the film's two leads. Against an image of Jennifer Lawrence squeezing Andrew Barth Feldman's cheeks, a single word is placed on top of each person's face: "Pretty" and "Awkward." Nothing revolutionary in design, but it gets the job done. Best of all, that tagline also makes for an apt descriptor for Trolls Band Together.
The third entry in the Trolls trilogy (based on the popular 80s dolls), Trolls Band Together does indeed live up to the phrase “Pretty. Awkward.” The animators at DreamWorks keep coming up with gorgeous-looking environments for the titular critters to inhabit that look like they emerged from the wreckage of a craft store explosion. Unfortunately, the writing remains as stilted as ever. Continue Reading →
The Garfield Movie
SimilarArmageddon (1998), Batman Begins (2005), Batman Forever (1995), Batman Returns (1992), Ben-Hur (1959), Beverly Hills Cop III (1994), Code of Silence (1985), Constantine (2005), Enchanted (2007), Fantasia (1940), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), I've Always Liked You (2016), Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003), Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004), Mary Poppins (1964), Moulin Rouge! (2001), Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984), Paris Can Wait (2016), Princess Mononoke (1997), Shall We Dance? (2004), Strange Days (1995), The Matrix Reloaded (2003), The Matrix Revolutions (2003), The Science of Sleep (2006), True Romance (1993), Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005), You Only Live Twice (1967), Zatoichi (2003),
Watch after1917 (2019),
Barbie (2023) Oppenheimer (2023) Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021), Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023), Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), The Flash (2023), The Suicide Squad (2021),
StarringAyane Sakura, Brett Goldstein, Hannah Waddingham, Hisako Kanemoto, Junko Minagawa, Kotono Mitsuishi, Marina Inoue, Mariya Ise, Megumi Hayashibara, Samuel L. Jackson, Sayaka Ohara, Shizuka Itoh, Shoko Nakagawa,
StudioColumbia Pictures, dentsu, King Records, Studio Deen, Toei Animation, Toei Company,
When I was around thirteen, two classmates, Christina and Taylor (their real names, it’s not like they’re going to read this), played a prank on me that resulted in my eating dog food. In retrospect, it could have been worse: nobody else saw it happen, and for whatever reason they kept it to themselves. But when I think about my teenage years (and I try not to much at this point in my life, other than at a superficial pop culture level), my mind often goes to that moment. Continue Reading →
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
Similar2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), Aliens (1986), Back to the Future Part II (1989), Back to the Future Part III (1990), Batman Begins (2005), Beverly Hills Cop III (1994),
Blade Runner (1982) Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006), Code of Silence (1985), Con Air (1997), Dr. No (1962), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), Fargo (1996), Forrest Gump (1994), From Russia with Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003), Mars Attacks! (1996), Men in Black II (2002), Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984), North by Northwest (1959), Ocean's Eleven (1960), On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006), Snakes on a Plane (2006), Star Trek: First Contact (1996), Star Trek: Generations (1994), The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), The Fifth Element (1997), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), The Matrix Reloaded (2003), The Matrix Revolutions (2003), The Road (2009), Twelve Monkeys (1995), Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005), Wild at Heart (1990), You Only Live Twice (1967),
StarringRebecca Romijn,
StudioNew Line Cinema,
An overview of the diverse features selected to screen at this year's Austin Film Festival.
This piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike, the work being covered here wouldn't exist.
A cycle rickshaw, adorned with a Texas flag billowing in the wind, whizzes by while blaring a Luke Combs tune. Massive murals of Willie Nelson and Post Malone gaze down on passersby like the eyes of T.J. Eckleburg. A man in a Blue Lives Matter shirt waltzes past a "PROTECT TRANS KIDS" sign planted on the lawn of a Catholic Church. Welcome to Austin, Texas, a Southern hotspot that, for the final weekend of October 2023, wasn't just home to these and other oddball sights, but also the backdrop for the 30th edition of the Austin Film Festival. Though not as world-famous as the Toronto International Film Festival or Cannes, Austin's annual ode to cinema is still a much-ballyhooed event attended by freelance journalists, aspiring screenwriters, iconic filmmakers, and everyone in between. Continue Reading →
Inspector Sun y la maldición de la viuda negra
SimilarAladdin (1992), Basic Instinct (1992), Blue Velvet (1986), Caché (2005), Gone Baby Gone (2007), Memento (2000), Oldboy (2003),
The Name of the Rose (1986) The Thirteenth Floor (1999), Vertigo (1958),
Watch afterSpider-Man: No Way Home (2021), Top Gun: Maverick (2022),
I love detective stories. Tales of how, as Sara Gran would say, "truth lives in the ether." Explorations of people and places and how they shape each other. The journey down the streets towards a hidden truth. Dennis Lehane's Darkness, Take My Hand, is my favorite book. Rian Johnson's Brick and Ben Affleck's Gone Baby Gone are movies I think the world of, never mind all-timers like Howard Hawks' The Big Sleep and Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye. And, of course, the immortal Who Framed Roger Rabbit? from Robert Zemeckis. Any time there's a new detective film, whether it be an affably bleak comedy or an action-driven character study, it's a treat. Continue Reading →
Shorts
Local filmmakers, horror & desire are all given the spotlight at the Chicago International Film Festival's shorts program.
This piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike, the work being covered here wouldn't exist.
The first program of shorts featured at this year's Chicago International Film Festival, titled “City & State,” highlighted local voices with astounding range. Dustin Nakao-Haider’s film Ethan Lim: Cambodian Futures is a poignant and complex film highlighting Chicago chef Ethan Lim and his hope for a different future that moves Cambodian food in revolutionary directions. Director Linh Tran’s Video Funeral grapples with similar issues of loss, (re)connection, and family brought about by diaspora. Like Linh Tran, Ian Kelly’s animated short Soft Lights and Silver Shadows is a tender testament to how art and media can help transcend time, distance, and mortality. Equally fascinated with different domestic dynamics, Tetsuya Mariko intently investigated what makes a family against crumbling infrastructure in his tense Before Anyone Else. Continue Reading →
May December
SimilarAli: Fear Eats the Soul (1974), Billy Elliot (2000), Brazil (1985), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), Dawn of the Dead (2004), Fargo (1996), M*A*S*H (1970), Mars Attacks! (1996), Monster (2003), My Own Private Idaho (1991), Oldboy (2003), Shaun of the Dead (2004), Stalker (1979), Talk to Her (2002), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), The Road (2009), The Tin Drum (1979), Volver (2006), Wonder Boys (2000),
Watch afterAmerican Fiction (2023), Anatomy of a Fall (2023), Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), Leave the World Behind (2023), Napoleon (2023),
Oppenheimer (2023) Poor Things (2023), Saltburn (2023), Thanksgiving (2023),
In such films as Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, Velvet Goldmine and I’m Not There, filmmaker Todd Haynes has taken the stories of famous people and utilized what we know—or think we know—about them to explore ideas about celebrity and our all-consuming need to render their often-complex stories into straightforward narratives. That strange compulsion to explain, understand, and commodify the lives of real people is at the heart of his latest work, May December, and it certainly seems to have sparked something in him because the end result is the strongest work that he has done in quite some time. Continue Reading →
Saltburn
SimilarBen-Hur (1959),
Bend It Like Beckham (2002) Billy Elliot (2000), Brazil (1985), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), Copying Beethoven (2006), Crash (1996), Desert Hearts (1985), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Fargo (1996), Full Metal Jacket (1987), Klute (1971), Little Miss Sunshine (2006), Lost in Translation (2003), M*A*S*H (1970), Mars Attacks! (1996), My Own Private Idaho (1991), On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), Paris Can Wait (2016),
Primal Fear (1996) Rope (1948), Shaun of the Dead (2004), Shrek (2001), Star Trek: First Contact (1996), Strange Days (1995), Talk to Her (2002), The Big Blue (1988), The Fisher King (1991), The Holiday (2006), The Last Emperor (1987), The Tin Drum (1979), To Die For (1995), Vertigo (1958),
Watch afterLeave the World Behind (2023), Poor Things (2023), Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire (2023), Society of the Snow (2023), Thanksgiving (2023), Wonka (2023),
StudioMRC,
With her first film, Promising Young Woman, writer-director Emerald Fennell took a storyline that was essentially a cloddish-but-glossy retread of such female-driven revenge sagas as Ms .45 and I Spit on Your Grave, infused it with insights regarding gender issues that would barely have passed muster in a 100-level college class and somehow rode it to inexplicable praise and an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Continue Reading →
Once Within a Time
Watch afterAvatar: The Way of Water (2022),
Barbie (2023) Black Adam (2022), Black Widow (2021), Dune (2021), Inception (2010),
Oppenheimer (2023) Parasite (2019), Poor Things (2023), Society of the Snow (2023), Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023), The Batman (2022), The Whale (2022),
When Godfrey Reggio’s monumental experimental documentary Koyannistqatsi (Life Out of Balance in Hopi) first entered the zeitgeist, its radical nature as a postmodern film, with a thoroughly entrancing score by Phillip Glass, became intertwined with the rise of MTV and a new era of visual aesthetic being born within the music sphere. From the noise rock band Cows to electronic musicians Dr. Atmo and Oliver Leib to superstar pop singer Madonna, the film had an indelible effect on music and the music video. Continue Reading →
Dicks: The Musical
SimilarAlex Strangelove (2018),
Bend It Like Beckham (2002) Billy Elliot (2000), Chicago (2002), Dirty Dancing (1987), Enchanted (2007), Mary Poppins (1964), Moulin Rouge! (2001), Shall We Dance? (2004), Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971),
Watch afterAvatar: The Way of Water (2022),
Barbie (2023) Dune: Part Two (2024), Inception (2010), Interstellar (2014), Joker (2019),
Oppenheimer (2023) Parasite (2019),
Studio20th Century Fox, A24,
The audaciously titled Dicks: The Musical comes with an equally eye-catching tagline, boasting the honor of being “A24’s first musical.” That’s bound to intrigue cinephiles everywhere. After all, not every movie studio is trendy enough to regularly sell out of logo festooned merchandise. Or even make hipster merch in the first place. Continue Reading →
Dream Scenario
SimilarA Clockwork Orange (1971), Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006), Brazil (1985), Dawn of the Dead (2004), Forrest Gump (1994), Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), Little Miss Sunshine (2006), M*A*S*H (1970), Mars Attacks! (1996), Shaun of the Dead (2004), The Party (1980), The Party 2 (1982), The Science of Sleep (2006),
Watch afterAnatomy of a Fall (2023), Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023), Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), Leave the World Behind (2023), Napoleon (2023), Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire (2023), Saltburn (2023), The Killer (2023),
StarringNicholas Braun,
StudioA24,
At this point, you can roughly divide the output of Nicolas Cage into one of two categories. First, there are films so tailored to his reigning wild man of cinema persona that it seems unimaginable they could exist if he passed. In the other camp are the quieter efforts like The Weather Man, Joe, and Pig that remind of what a powerful actor he still can be. His latest project, writer-director Kristoffer Borgli’s Dream Scenario, combines both approaches into a single offering. The result is a strange and wildly audacious work anchored by a surprisingly deft and low-key turn from Cage that stands in marked contrast to the weirdness surrounding him. Continue Reading →
The Burial
SimilarAlmost Famous (2000), Anatomy of a Murder (1959), Apollo 13 (1995),
Boys Don't Cry (1999) Brubaker (1980), Donnie Brasco (1997), Erin Brockovich (2000), Freedom Writers (2007), Gandhi (1982), GoodFellas (1990), Gridiron Gang (2006), Manhattan (1979), Mississippi Burning (1988), Monster (2003), Schindler's List (1993), The Elephant Man (1980), The Last Emperor (1987), The Straight Story (1999), Titanic (1997),
Watch afterBarbie (2023) Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023), The Equalizer 3 (2023), The Killer (2023),
StarringAlan Ruck,
Whenever a crowd pleasing movie hits theaters or streaming, people lament, “They don’t make ‘em like they used to.” Often, these people refer to middle-of-the-road movies from the 80s and 90s, the type of film that would play on cable television in the middle of a Sunday afternoon, something that people watch over and over again, simply because it makes them feel lighter. The Burial, the new courtroom drama from writer/director Maggie Betts, falls firmly into this category. It’s dad-fare, set in 1995 when it also likely would’ve had mainstream success in popular culture. Continue Reading →
Dear David
Similar9 Songs (2004), Aladdin (1992), Annie Hall (1977), Ben-Hur (1959), Cruel Intentions (1999), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Finding Forrester (2000), Let the Right One In (2008), Manhattan (1979), Match Point (2005), Moulin Rouge! (2001), Stand by Me (1986), The Science of Sleep (2006), Titanic (1997), True Romance (1993), Wild at Heart (1990),
Watch afterAnt-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023), Avatar: The Way of Water (2022), Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022),
Outside of Janicza Bravo’s Twitter thread turned feature film Zola, viral social engagements have rarely yielded great art. Nonetheless, Buzzfeed Studios wades into the fray with the horror film Dear David. Based on a series of Twitter threads from their former comic artist Adam Ellis, the story chronicles Ellis’s experiences with a possible supernatural presence in his New York apartment. That may seem like a fresh idea, but the film traffics in standard scary movie tropes, a stunted look, and an overreliance on the concept. Continue Reading →
Goosebumps
Similar2Moons: The Series, A Dance to the Music of Time,
Agatha Christie's Poirot Akashic Records of Bastard Magic Instructor, Amazing Stories, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Babel,
Black Books Brimstone, Cruel Summer, Cybersix, Dark, Dark Winds, Dexter, Fate/Apocrypha, From, Further Tales of the City, Game of Thrones, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, Gossip Girl, Hero Return,
HIStory M*A*S*H, Metal Hurlant Chronicles, Miss Marple: Nemesis, Monarch of the Glen, More Tales of the City, Mr. Mercedes, Murder Most Horrid,
Planet of the Apes Sherlock Holmes Soul Land 2: The Peerless Tang Clan, Tales from the Crypt, Tales from the Neverending Story, Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills, The 100, The 4400, The Alienist, The Family Game, The Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These, The Moon Embracing the Sun, The Serial Killer's Wife, The Shining, The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty, The Strain, The Twilight Zone, The Wimbledon Poisoner, ThunderCats, Tientsin Mystic, Troubles, Wedding Impossible, Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, Witchcraft,
Do we need another live-action Goosebumps adaptation? After a ’90s Fox Kids series and a pair of 2010s films, one would assume that the ground of turning Slappy the dummy and other frightening beings into flesh-and-blood creations has been well-trodden. Continue Reading →
Our Flag Means Death
NetworkHBO Max, Max,
Similar'Allo 'Allo!, A Fortunate Life, A Respectable Trade,
Agatha Christie's Poirot Cigarette Girl, Dancing on the Edge, Flower Boy Next Door, Jack the Ripper, Oh, Doctor Beeching!,
Pride and Prejudice Seijuu Sentai Gingaman,
Sherlock Holmes The Alienist, The Gangster Chronicles,
It’s always the surprise hit quirky shows with the most to live up to in their second season. A bad sophomore outing, especially after quickly gaining a cult following, could make or break, say, the plucky little pirate romance known as Our Flag Means Death Season 2. Luckily, David Jenkins, Taika Waititi, et al. keep things fresh and fun without reinventing (or stealing) the wheel. Continue Reading →