A rusted out jalopy rumbles down the deserted side streets of a ghost town, past graffiti decrying a government that bails out banks while leaving nothing for its veterans. Two masked men enter a bank and rob it at gunpoint, a small drop of vengeance against an institution that’s wronged countless others. (more…)
Denis Villeneuve’s carefully constructed alien invasion pic Arrival is as notable for what it does as for what it avoids. It risks that linguistic research and the probing of the human soul can be swapped out for bombastic clashes of military might and still hold an audience’s attention. (more…)
The Birth of a Nation – which reclaims its title from a KKK propaganda film made over a hundred years ago – is a heady mix of gut-level artistry and timely history lesson, told from the perspective of an ambitious auteur making his directorial debut. (more…)
The shock of seeing diminutive Daniel Radcliffe spout racial epithets and march in white power rallies serves as a morbid draw for the thriller Imperium. Playing an FBI agent turned undercover Neo-Nazi, the actor continues to do his level best to shed his enduring Harry Potter image. (more…)
Stop me if you’ve heard it before: young guys run amok in their industry, making untold fortunes while binging on drugs and consumerism, breaking the law many times over until it all comes crashing down. War Dogs takes that familiar template from The Wolf of Wall Street and relocates it to the gun-running world of Miami for a bombastic journey that takes its stylistic cues from visual savants like Michael Bay and legendary storytellers like Martin Scorsese, remixing them for an occasionally fun ride that loses steam long before the credits role. (more…)
The log line is absurd: residents of an unnamed city in the dystopian near-future must be in a relationship otherwise they’re sent to a hotel and given 45 days to find a mate. Failure to pair up results in being turned into an animal of their choosing. Lonely David (Colin Ferrell) chooses a lobster because they live to be a 100 years-old and have blue blood. Good choice David. (more…)
For all the Marvel movies’ successes – great team dynamics, zippy scripts, solid action – they’ve always had a problem coming up with compelling villains (Tom Hiddleston’s Loki excepted). Captain America: Civil War devises a simple solution: pit the heroes against each other. (more…)
Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele collectively pushed forward sketch comedy with their hit TV show Key and Peele that ended in 2015 after five strong seasons. They tackled subjects as varied as race, substitute teachers and endless pop culture ephemera (Mr. T PSA anyone?) in a format that seemed rooted in the pair’s deep love of cinema and their ability to construct pitch-perfect parodies of those movies they adored. (more…)
Shane Black’s carved out quite the niche for himself in Hollywood. The prolific writer and sometimes director seems to easily oscillate between big budget spectacle (2013’s Iron Man 3 and the upcoming new Predator movie) and more personal, nuanced fare (2005’s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and The Nice Guys) while ensuring his sardonic wit is intact. (more…)
Taking its title (and punctuation) from a Van Halen song and billed as a spiritual sequel to the era-defining Dazed and Confused, Everybody Wants Some!! promises at the very least a good time and possibly something more as it charts a few days in the lives of some college baseball players. (more…)
Glen On Film 