Bottoms is for 2023 what Heathers was for 1988
On Movies & Media,Film Reviews
December 2, 2023
Here's a high school comedy about hormones and hijinks that goes to violent extremes, afflicting the comfortable and making the uncomfortable laugh until they're sick.
0 Comments27 Minutes
Lily Gladstone goes soul-searching in The Unknown Country
On Movies & Media,Film Reviews
November 5, 2023
You're probably hearing a lot about Lily Gladstone's performance in Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon. In fact, she was just as magnetic earlier this year in The Unknown Country, a film worth seeking out on streaming services, and one of my favorites of 2023.
0 Comments10 Minutes
Barbie, Pt. 3: My full review!
On Movies & Media,Film Reviews
October 29, 2023
My three-part series on Greta Gerwig's Barbie culminates with my full review.
0 Comments1 Minute
Killers of My Substack Journal: New films by Scorsese and Fincher
On Movies & Media,Film Reviews
October 29, 2023
In a season of intensifying violence — in American neighborhoods, and in battlefields of global significance — some of our best filmmakers are telling stories about gun-wielding villains. I've just published thoughts on The Killer and Killers of the Flower Moon.
0 Comments2 Minutes
Barbie, Pt. 2: Action figures, their accessories, and me
On Movies & Media,Film Reviews
October 29, 2023
In Part Two of my Barbie coverage, I establish some necessary context for my upcoming film review. My history with toy trends is a story of formative influences: Barbies for girls, armed men for boys.
0 Comments17 Minutes
Barbie, Pt. 1: While frightened men burn dolls, Christian women rave about Barbie’s wisdom
On Movies & Media,Film Reviews
October 15, 2023
Greta Gerwig's brilliant blockbuster gets us laughing at the absurdity of real-world hierarchies (including injustices often reinforced in Christian circles to the harm of everyone involved).
0 Comments12 Minutes
Was Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer inspired by Raiders of the Lost Ark?
On Movies & Media,Film Reviews
September 15, 2023
Christopher Nolan seems to be remaking Steven Spielberg's "Raiders of the Lost Ark" in this profound meditation on America's self-righteous obsession with coercive violence and apocalyptic firepower.
0 Comments6 Minutes
Showing Up: a movie that will make artists feel seen
On Movies & Media,Film Reviews
August 16, 2023
Kelly Reichardt's latest depicts the day-to-day challenges of artmaking with such truthfulness that artists may find it almost too familiar.
1 Comment9 Minutes
Second star to the right and straight on ’til … mourning?
On Movies & Media,Film Reviews
July 27, 2023
David Lowery's "Peter Pan and Wendy" gives us a glimpse of the unconventionally meditative and innovative adaptation that might have been. But what it actually is? That might well be the result of studio interference, judging from these strangely incoherent results.
0 Comments14 Minutes
Kelly Fremon Craig gives us the perfect prelude to Barbie
On Movies & Media,Film Reviews
July 23, 2023
Most people missed the long-awaited adaptation of "Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret." in the theater. That's a shame, as it's one of 2023's most enjoyable films so far.
0 Comments15 Minutes