MUDBOUND: REAL LIFE, NOT SO LONG AGO
Mudbound is easy to admire but tough to watch at times. It tells a truthful tale from America’s not-so-distant past, contrasting the lives of two families—one black, one white—struggling to eke out an existence as sharecroppers in Mississippi during the…
JUSTICE LEAGUE: HEROES WORTH IDOLIZING
There is something intrinsically compelling about a gathering like this. At its best, Justice League is a lot of fun–the kind of fun I look for in a comic-book superhero movie. It even removes the unpleasant aftertaste of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of…
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI
Playwright and filmmaker Martin McDonagh likes to mess with us. The results can be disarming (In Bruges) or distressing (Seven Psychopaths), but in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri he explores new dramatic territory. Who else would present us with a protagonist…
THOR RAGNAROK: IRREVERENT FUN IN THE MCU
Marvel has a gift for repeatedly giving its fans the unexpected. Who would have dreamed that Thor, one of their most stoic characters, would star in one of the studio’s goofiest films? Thor Ragnarok opens with the mighty warrior in smartass…
LADY BIRD: A TRUTHFUL TEENAGE PORTRAIT
Greta Gerwig has made an impressive debut feature as writer and director with Lady Bird. It isn’t every day you see a film so attuned to the outsized drama of adolescent life. The film is bursting with life and rich…
LAST FLAG FLYING: THREE GREAT ACTORS AT WORK
It’s a pleasure to watch Bryan Cranston, Steve Carell and Laurence Fishburne bring their disparate characters to life in Richard Linklater’s Last Flag Flying, an actor’s vehicle if there ever was one. The year is 2003: George W. Bush…
FOUR NEW DISNEY BOOKS
INK & PAINT: THE WOMEN OF WALT DISNEY’S ANIMATION by Mindy Johnson; foreword by June Foray (Disney Editions) The size and weight of this volume is matched only by its scope. Disney scholar Johnson, whose previous book detailed the…
