2021 Top 10
The theatrical movie experience painfully went away in 2020, and it painfully returned in 2021. Part of what made it so was the realization that I did not miss it… Continue reading "2021 Top 10"
The theatrical movie experience painfully went away in 2020, and it painfully returned in 2021. Part of what made it so was the realization that I did not miss it… Continue reading "2021 Top 10"
I tell my students that I am a prose guy, not a poetry guy. So the fact that I enjoy PBS’s weekly lessons about famous American poems should reassure anyone… Continue reading "Poetry in America, Season 3"
You may think you’re cool, but you’ll never be “Timothée Chalamet walking in slow motion along a rocky coast under floating spaceships to a Hans Zimmer score” cool. Dune: Part… Continue reading "Dune (Villeneuve, 2021)"
I have been writing the same review of Erwin films for nearly a decade, so here it is: better than it has to be but not as good as it… Continue reading "American Underdog (Erwin and Erwin, 2021)"
Both Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith are listed as Executive Producers of The Jesus Music. While not disqualifying, this fact may go a way to explaining why the film… Continue reading "The Jesus Music (Erwin and Erwin, 2021)"
For twenty to thirty minutes, Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story glides along on the strength of choreography and snappy (no pun intended) visual storytelling. Almost, I was convinced. But dissatisfaction… Continue reading "West Side Story (Spielberg, 2021)"
Paper & Glue is an immensely hopeful film, arriving at a time when I have been feeling particularly hopeless about the state of the world we live in. Political problems,… Continue reading "Paper & Glue (JR, 2021)"
About the time my region went to sheltering in place to flatten the 2020 Covid-19 curve, I decided to try to revisit as many MCU films as I could in… Continue reading "Eternals (Zhao, 2021)"
My earliest encounter with political science was an elementary school riddle that asked, “What is the difference between a revolutionary war and a civil war?” The answer — “who wins”… Continue reading "Huda’s Salon (Abu-Assad, 2021)"
Normally when my critical opinion is an outlier, it is the case that I am defending or esteeming some more widely panned film, so I was surprised when I saw… Continue reading "King Richard (Green, 2021)"