Reviews And Otherwise

Adaptations of DC’s SUPERGIRL tend to be underwhelming (didn’t see the TV series with Melissa Benoist). The 1984 campy Salkind production had Helen Slater upstaged by post-MOMMIE DEAREST Faye Dunaway. This one has been overly firebombed by misogynistic fanboys, for which the casting of Jason Momoa as Lobo wasn’t soothing enough. It does have its merits—mostly Milly Alcock’s transformation from dep...

Deep cuts from the filmographies of John Wayne and Greta Garbo. A MAN BETRAYED is Republic Pictures doing a knockoff of Frank Capra’s virtuous small town citizen confronting Big City corruption formula. Wayne plays Gary Cooper here and has some romantic chemistry with Frances Dee (daughter of politician/crime boss Edward Ellis). ROMANCE is pre-code 1930 with Garbo having fun with an Italian accent...

Discussing Steven Spielberg’s full-circle return to his chase thriller 70s roots plus side orders of UFO files paranoia and Hitchcock homages.

Reviews of a feature version of a YouTube series, a feature version of a Disney+ series and an original, non IP movie you’re probably unaware of.

Discussing the 20 years on follow-up to the glossy fashion magazine comedy—plus some musing on why most celebs wouldn’t quit this year’s Jeff and Lauren Met Gala.

Discussing real Michael Jackson plus Antoine Fuqua and the estate’s sinned against angelic version—and Dan Reed’s view of Michael escaping accountability for his alleged sexual misbehavior with children.

Irish horror director with his take on the nine-decades-plus unearthed and undead horror concept—which apparently collided with James Wan’s hopes to give WB/New Line a movie that was CONJURING-adjacent. Has its moments, mainly in the final third, but definitely a hodgepodge.

Discussing two of the shiny object cringe comedy/dramas from the boutique portion of A24. Spoilers included for THE DRAMA.

Discussing the debut commentary track—Ronald Haver’s discussion of the original KING KONG for a 1990s Criterion laserdisc. Also, some context as to Haver’s career as programmer at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, plus his restoration of George Cukor’s A STAR IS BORN and authorship of DAVID O. SELZNICK’S HOLLYWOOD.

Reviewing a 1976 actioner with mob lawyer and BFF race driver Stacy Keach keeping heroin off the streets of San Francisco, Nicholas Ray’s 1949 woman’s picture/mystery/noir with Maureen O’Hara and Gloria Grahame and a 1986 TV-movie with the one-off pairing of Robert Mitchum and Wilford Brimley.

Reviewing the new documentary COVER-UP (co-directed by Laura Poitras) on investigative journalism legend Seymour Hersh, Josh Safdie’s MARTY SUPREME, James Cameron’s AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH and Paul Feig’s THE HOUSEMAID.

A few brief comments on Noah Baumbach and Emily Mortimer crafting what they hoped to be an Awards Season crowd pleaser with George Clooney as Nowhere Man movie star who glides through life until self-examination happens almost too late.

Reviews of films rejected by mainstream audiences: DIE MY LOVE (which will be an awards contender regardless), CHRISTY (Sydney Sweeney again showing serious acting credentials) and SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE (a Bruce Springsteen biopic daring to be more analytical than triumphant underdog cliche).

Discussing, briefly, ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER, and where I think it should be placed in the Paul Thomas Anderson pantheon. Then, it’s on to AFTER THE HUNT, which wants to provoke in a lazy right-tilting fashion where #MeToo is treated like a Mark of Cain inconvenience for successful people asked to be accountable for misconduct/coercion/assault—plus there’s a side order of Trump-ish excrement thro...

Reviewing William Wyler’s final film, a bleak statement about irresolvable racism in the American South, plus Ernst Lubitsch’s final film at Paramount, a screwball comedy in which Claudette Colbert teaches seven times wed playboy businessman Gary Cooper how to value the institution of marriage.

Films from the Action Couple of the moment: Ana De Armas enters the John Wick universe as Tom Cruise finishes an almost three-decade run as IMF agent Ethan Hunt.

Reviewing a lesser-known Humphrey Bogart circus/carnival film, John Farrow’s teaming of Ray Milland and Barbara Stanwyck—and Willian Shatner going Full Shatner as a grifter/gigolo who also is a psychopathic killer in early 1970S Tampa.

New David Cronenberg film about death (and other obsessions) reviewed, plus Nicolas Cage going Down Under and not fitting in with a quite territorial clique of surfers.

A few words on the thankfully under-rewarded EMILIA PEREZ, plus reviews of Errol Morris’s return to true crime and Bong Joon-Ho’s return to science fiction that satirizes egocentric humans callously exploiting other humans in their employ.

Awards Season episode featuring films celebrated (I’M STILL HERE, THE BRUTALIST and A COMPLETE UNKNOWN) and ignored (THE ROOM NEXT DOOR and OH, CANADA).

Quick opinions of the first half of WICKED, the slept-on THE OUTRUN and estate-approved documentaries on Christopher Reeve and Humphrey Bogart.

Veterans Robert Zemeckis and Francis Ford Coppola emerge with technically audacious films which have generally been received with indifference/disdain.

Reviewing the debut films of Cameron Crowe (1983) and Anna Kendrick (2023).

Reviewing the film du jour by Coralie Fageat which, somehow, fails to confront the epidemic of Botoxed facelifting forced on most women working in show business, as well as enabling by other women in executive positions. At the beginning, Demi Moore’s 1996 film STRIPTEASE is mentioned to contrast the indulgence of the male gaze with the alleged boldness of her extended nudity (plus that of Margare...

Reviewing the fast-paced distillation of the ALIEN franchise, plus the dumped-by-Neon teaming of Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway and, finally, Daisy Ridley going full Hillary Swank as champion 1920s swimmer Gertrude Ederle.