4 Best Movies To Watch After American Beauty (1999)

Engage in holiday self-care with some movies that put a stake in the heart of romance. Even if you're in a content, stable relationship, Valentine's Day can often feel like a bit of a joyless slog. Like a lot of holidays in the internet era, it's become less a day of celebration, and more another excuse to engage in conspicuous consumption and endless games of one-upmanship. Who got the biggest flower arrangement at the office? Who cares? Whether single or not, you may understandably feel as if all the fun and romantic flair has been squeezed out of the day. In keeping with that, consider this short list of bleakly funny, sad, or just plain horrifying cinematic takes on romance to get you in the anti-spirit. Continue Reading →

Based on Lizzie Presser’s 2019 ProPublica/New Yorker article, Raoul Peck’s Silver Dollar Road starts by barreling headfirst. Its first 15 minutes are a crash course of talking heads, introducing family members with broad, expository precision. The film shows them but doesn’t fully introduce them. Rather, it relies on graphics to fashion a sense of context. What the subjects say to the camera may provide an identity for the story at hand, but Peck’s approach renders such words largely textual. The narrative may be propulsive. The film, however, tends to feel stagnant. Continue Reading →

Most of Generation X has received our AARP memberships in the mail, as our lurching journey down the road towards irrelevance comes to an end. Both the smallest generation in numbers, and the first generation to not do better than our parents financially, we’ve long been caught in the middle of the endless battle for dominance between Boomers and Millennials, and now with Gen Z steamrolling over them both, we’re fading out of the cultural picture altogether, like Marty McFly’s brother and sister. Continue Reading →

Twenty years after its sensational release, Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amélie has become synonymous with words like “twee” and “whimsy.” Thanks to a popular bit on My Brother, My Brother, and Me, you can’t even mention the film in certain company. Certainly not without risking being audience to a long, dreary recitation of the original McElroy goof by your guy friends who think a movie discussion is some kind of open mic night. But jokesters, cynics, and doubters aside, there’s a reason why 20 years on, Amélie is still considered a masterpiece. More than a modern fairy tale in an Instagram version of Paris, the film remains a tribute to the lonely outcasts, the hopeless romantics, and a celebration of small pleasures.   Continue Reading →