The Present is a fun, yet flawed, movie that combines two familiar genres — the family movie, and science-fiction — for an enjoyable enough time for anyone who might be scrolling through their favorite streaming service looking for an easy watch. This low-budget indie comes from “Love, Rosie” director, Christian Ditter, and “Get Hard” writer,…
Every once in a while, I am glad to watch a movie that I wouldn’t normally watch. This, however, was not one of those times. In the 80 minutes that I sacrificed watching Breaking Infinity, an indie film about time travel, I did wonder if I could use their equipment to go back and not…
What do you do when you’ve made multiple successful films in New Zealand, graduated to Hollywood blockbuster franchise installments while maintaining your idiosyncrasies and then won an Academy Award? In the case of Taika Waititi, the answer is to make another blockbuster where the idiosyncrasies are even more pronounced, to an extent that may amuse…
In 2002, the superhero genre achieved an ideal form in “Spider-Man,” which built upon aspects from the Superman and Batman franchises as well as 1998’s “Blade” and 2000’s “X-Men.” Over the subsequent two decades, the genre developed and expanded, but a consistent aspect throughout is the cinematic expression of the experience of superpowers. This was…
“I wanna be just like a melody, just like a simple sound, like in harmony” — Glide from “All About Lily Chou-Chou” Projections of the future in cinema have mainly foreseen a world where war, disease, and pervasive alienation are the norm. Korean-born writer/director Kogonada’s vision of the future, however, is not a dystopian world…
The balance between innovation and homage is a difficult one to strike. This is especially so when dealing with established and beloved properties. Spider-Man: No Way Home takes on the formidable task of balancing the demands of a standalone film, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), and the wider presence of Spider-Man in cinema and popular…
Two beautiful people in a beautiful setting confess the beauty they see in each other, before creating something beautiful between them. There’s a lot of beauty in this scene, a scene that could happen in any number of films, but here it takes place in an entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Its presence…
