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Male Enhancement: ‘XXL’ Doubles The Pleasure Of The First ‘Magic Mike’
If you’d told me before the fact that a movie about male strippers starring Matthew McConaughey and Channing Tatum would have been amongst my top five films of 2012, I may not have believed you, except...
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‘Tangerine’ Is The New Black: Independent Spirit Moves To The iPhone
These days, the state of the film industry can be disheartening. Studios are focused almost exclusively on franchises, reboots, and colossally expensive tentpole releases. Mid-budget movies have gone...
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Generation ‘Jest’: The Infinite Sadness Of The Nineties Reaches ‘The End Of...
Few artists reach the literary legend status David Foster Wallace did — and fewer still do it with, essentially, one work. Many who do die tragically young. Perhaps there are certain eras more likely...
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The Tens: Best Of Film 2004
(A “Then & Now” perspective.) Like my 2005 list, this Top Ten comes at you twenty strong, because that’s how I wrote it back in the day on my LiveJournal. And like last time, I’ll be adding my...
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The Tens: Best Of Film 2002
Here it is, straight from the mouth of a film student. The Top 10 movies of the year. However, I haven’t seen any of the following yet: The Hours, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Talk to Her, Bowling...
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Hard.in.the.City’s 2015 Oscars Drinking Game
No, Academy Awards drinking games are nothing new or novel, and yes, every other more reputable pop culture website has already posted one. But if I’m going to be watching the Oscars, and I’m going to...
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The Tens: Best Of Film 2003
(A Then & Now perspective.) The further back I go in time, the less secure I am in my Top Ten choices. That’s largely because I haven’t seen all these movies again since, and I have no idea how,...
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Love In The East: The Season Two Debut Of ‘EastSiders’
For anyone going through Looking withdrawals since HBO cancelled their low-rated gay series, the internet now has your methadone. Season Two of EastSiders just made its Vimeo debut. Seeing as it takes...
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Girl, Mistress, Queen: A Female-Centric Summer At The Arthouse
Movies these days tend to be events. Even the smaller ones are often given the royal treatment, when it comes from a beloved, established filmmaker. Noam Baumbach is certainly one of those, yet he’s...
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‘Walk’& Talk: Zemeckis (Almost) Pulls Off A Chatty High-Wire Heist
It seems exactly enough time has passed to allow for a film that prominently features New York City’s fallen World Trade Center without any explicit reference to September 11. Though Joseph...
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Intelligent Life: Science Rules In ‘The Martian’
The Martian shouldn’t feel like such a treasure, and maybe twenty years ago, it wouldn’t have. Its closest cousin, Apollo 13, was nominated for Best Picture in 1995, back when feel-good movies could...
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The Tens: Best Of Film 2002
Here it is, straight from the mouth of a film student. (Sort of.) I made this Top 10 list relatively early in awards season, before I’d seen a number of films that factored into the race that year —...
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Boy Meets World: Mother And Child Escape A ‘Room’ Without A View
Many of us have had the experience of returning to a place we know from childhood. A place that once served as the stage for everything we knew, and suddenly, looks very small. Room stars Brie Larson...
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Border Line: International Relations Get Tense In ‘Bridge Of Spies’&‘Sicario’
We’ve heard many times that the so-called “War on Drugs” really is an actual war. Traffic, a Best Picture nominee from way back in 2000, remains the cinematic authority on the topic, and probably had...
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‘Jobs’&‘Homes’: Politics, Technology & Economy In America’s Recent Past
Whether you’re a fan of former president George W. Bush or not, you have to admit his term contained some profound low points, kicking off with 9/11 and ending in a nasty recession. You may or may not...
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Sunday Crimes: ‘Spotlight’ Illuminates The Catholic Church’s Dirty Little Secret
It’s late November now… and, shocker of shockers, the Oscar race is still wide open. As usual, awards season is officially underway with hopeful contenders stacked one on top of the other. But less...
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Orphan ‘White’: A Self-Centered City Boy’s Rude Awakening
This is neither the first nor the last time I’ll discuss awards season in relation to a movie that has maybe a 5% chance of nabbing an Oscar nomination. Every year, there are those surefire...
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Gun ‘Chi’: Spike Lee’s Rhyming Tragicomic Sex Farce Targets Gun Violence
Now that Mad Men is over, we’re seeing its star players pop up as supporting players all over the place — mostly (surprise, surprise) in the workplace. Elisabeth Moss was part of the team of duped...
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The Tens: Best Of Film 2001
This is it. This is my final retroactive Top 10 list, because it is my first. This was the first year I was in film school, and the first time I saw nearly enough films in any given year to feel...
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‘Force’ Majeur: Abrams Awakens A Flatlined Franchise
Recently, in this galaxy, I saw a film called Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and I bet you did too. The film has already grossed a predictably record-shattering $240(ish) million in the United States,...
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