Have you ever wondered what it would be like if Kevin James, Mr. Paul Blart himself, decided to take on a serious role? What if that role were that of a jacked-up neo-Nazi who terrorizes a family at their lakeside home? Boy and howdy, wonder no more, for here comes Becky, a solid, exciting, jarring,…
To describe the plot of One Cut of the Dead is to (slightly) spoil it, but it is also to highly recommend it. Without giving away too many details, director Shin’ichirô Ueda delivers a film within a film within a film (plus a bit extra), making it a gloriously meta-meta movie about movie making. If…
After viewing Uncut Gems, I found myself wondering, “Has any movie character ever so completely brought all their story’s conflict upon themselves as much as Howard Ratner does?” I guess that’s the nature of stories about addiction, that the addicts can’t help themselves and suffer horrible consequences as a result, but Howard really takes the…
If you’ve kept up with any of the reports on methods of achieving inner peace, tranquility, reducing anxiety, relieving trauma, or modifying destructive behavior, it’s likely you’ve heard somewhere of the mindfulness method. Jon Kabat-Zinn was the first researcher to make the concept of mindfulness popular in the United States after penning several books based…
Beggars can’t be choosers during the global lock-down. Cinemas are closed, blockbuster movies and their smaller brethren delayed, and Netflix’s back catalogue has been squeezed drier than a tube of antibacterial hand gel. So when the streaming platform serves up a new release, written and produced by the all-conquering Russo brothers no less, audiences were…
To the Stars is probably my favorite film of the year thus far, and will still rank high in my estimation come end of the year. The film initially premiered at Sundance last year in black and white, but has since been given the color treatment. The change to a colored setting doesn’t take away…
Many often think about art that embodies “The American Dream.” There’s certainly quite a few films that speak to the fantasy ideals of the red, white, and blue, though there are only a few that show the raw realities within the heart of the country. Because America wasn’t built by glamorous individuals that evoke the…
