As you’ve grown up, have you ever been ostracized from other children, for whatever reason? Maybe you were the kid who smelled, or wore thick glasses. Maybe you simply liked things that weren’t cool enough for elementary school status quo. Children generally have little-to-no sense of empathy when they’re that young, and so school can…
Alex Garland’s Annihilation is a complex puzzle, mixing the extraterrestrial with the most microbial elements of humanity. Its characterization is strong throughout — as its themes are mirrored in its leading lady — but its most promising components come in the form of visual metaphors. They’re scattered strategically throughout the 115-minute science fiction thinker. Where…
Following the release of “Lady Bird,” Anne Helen Petersen wrote a moving essay on the supporting roles of mothers in relation to their daughters’ central stories entitled “Moms Are Main Characters Too.” Petersen writes, “But something you learn after high school is that, without the momentousness of ‘firsts’ . . . and societally ordained milestones…
Somber, unrelenting and ultimately life-affirming, A Fantastic Woman is a powerful portrait of Marina Vidal, an eponymous woman and transgender character played fantastically by transgender actress Daniela Vega (“The Guest”), who must navigate institutional and individual intolerance and discrimination when her lover, Orlando (Francisco Reyes, “Neruda”), dies unexpectedly. The circumstances surrounding Orlando’s sudden death raise…
Since 2008, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) model has introduced ingenious engineers, Norse gods, space raiders and sorcerers. These superpowered figures appear in films that incorporate elements from World War II movies, space opera, heist films, alien invasions and conspiracy thrillers. With varying levels of dramatic success, the framework of a superhero figure in [insert…
One thing you can say about the fourth collaboration of Spanish filmmaker Jaume Collet-Serra and his avenging one-man army lead Liam Neeson: They certainly know how to revisit a movie formula and belabor it to death. In the stylish yet tepid transport mystery/thriller The Commuter the concocted suspense is needlessly derailed for yet another exploration…
And with that, the war on Valentine’s Day is over. It took two films, but finally Christian (Jamie Dornan, “Anthropoid”) shows off the smarts they said made him capable of running a company: Using just one ring rather than many cables to bind his love, Anastasia (Dakota Johnson, “How to Be Single”). Fifty Shades Freed…
