Pokémon Detective Pikachu is a film not unlike the Pokémon that populate it. On the surface it appears simple — a collection of seen-it-before neo-noir aesthetics, cute creatures, and a generic story, all tied together with a few charming leads. However, this is merely a façade. Before long it reveals itself to be a beast…
A progressive rage simmers at the despondent heart of Little Woods. It isn’t just that writer-director Nia DaCosta spends a busy 95 or so minutes examining how working-class economic anxiety often begets the toppling chain of dominoes in those trapped in it, but more so that she tells her story through the lens of a…
“The catastrophic death of a star brings new life to the universe. In order for us to live, a star must die. We are all stardust.” These are the opening lines in Carol Morley’s film Out of Blue, drawing me in like one those documentaries you might see at a science museum or observatory. Images…
Sure the Clown Prince of Crime got his accolades in “The Dark Knight,” but now with Joker it seems he’s finally gotten a film all to himself that he’s been deserving of. And it sure has a dark, dark Bernhard Goetz tone to it. Turns out Batman’s archnemesis was just an “ordinary” guy, living with…
J.C. Chandor’s (“All Is Lost”) Amazonian heist thriller, Triple Frontier, has a stellar cast and equally impressive cinematography — as some of Hollywood’s most recognizable stars traverse South American rainforests and mountainous peaks to lift hundreds of millions of dollars off a local drug lord. While some of the narrative feels somewhat tired — as…
The director’s chair being filled by established actors is becoming an increasingly popular card for Hollywood to pull these days, albeit with wildly varied results. Up until this point, the receptions of those films in a way mirror the novice auteurs behind the camera; Bradley Cooper’s “A Star Is Born” — perhaps you’ve heard of…
In Stray, an orphaned young woman struggles to discover the reasons behind her mother’s death, aided by an indefatigable detective with child-care issues of her own. The plot is also tinged with a bit of the supernatural, which typically would raise this movie a few cuts above your standard police procedural. Instead, the film left…
