It begins with rapid titles. “WB,” “DC,” The Batman, all flash up on screen quickly, before an opening point-of-view shot through binoculars takes in a well-dressed man in an opulent mansion. Watching, observing, planning and judging, this extended shot is unsettling in its voyeurism, especially as the viewer shares the perspective of this watcher, who…
When Sony announced its plans for a theatrical release of an animated Spider-Man film, even hardcore fans of the web swinger may have considered it to be just another unwarranted adaptation. “Haven’t we seen enough portrayals of Spider-Man?,” those with comic-book movie fatigue asked, and yet in his seventh major solo theatrical release since 2002,…
Zoë Kravitz’s (“Rough Night”) character in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, Leta Lestrange, tells the franchise’s bashful hero, Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne, “The Danish Girl”), “You never met a monster you couldn’t love.” The line is actually quite interchangeable with the film itself. While the narrative is somewhat of a slog, there is just…
Oh no, ladies, what are youse doing? Not asking this is not an option when every action to clear bride-to-be Jess (Scarlett Johansson, “Hail, Caesar!”) and her friends’ involuntary-manslaughtering ways in Rough Night is just reducing Lt. Horatio Caine and team’s investigation time. The bachelorette’s activist friend Frankie (Ilana Glazer, “The Night Before”) said it…
“Sir . . . I’ve seen you go through similar phases in 2016 and 2012 and 2008 and 2005 and 1997 and 1995 and 1992 and 1989 and that weird one in 1966.” — Alfred Pennyworth (voice of Ralph Fiennes) to Batman Like its 2014 predecessor, “The LEGO Movie,” The LEGO Batman Movie, a sequel…
Half the fun of watching Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a prequel of sorts to the “Harry Potter” franchise, is trying to figure out just who will be a vital link to that amazingly popular film series. J.K. Rowling (the author of the original “Potter” books, as well as this screenplay) seeks, like,…
Every now and then, Hollywood suffers from fatigue — the hot new thing that catches everyone’s attention and is insanely popular gets reproduced over and over and over until it’s everywhere, and everyone loves it even more . . . until they don’t. Then, there are the last few gasps of a trend until it…
