Every scene in this Korean popcorn film feels recycled from previous sci-fi movies, but the collective result is fresh and fun enough to be worthwhile for fans of the genre
Someday, in response to the current era of IP-based mass production at the movies, I believe a major studio will produce a title in the science-fiction genre with enough boldness and new ideas to stand on its own in a way that the contemporary slew of sequels, re-packagings, and rip-offs simply doesn’t. Until then, I’ll settle for something like Space Sweepers, a charismatic Korean space opera that veers in the opposite direction by wearing its countless tropes and familiarities like a badge of honor. …
In this biopic about the betrayal and assassination of Fred Hampton, LaKeith Stanfield and Daniel Kaluuya deliver tour-de-force performances as figures doomed by history.
As seen through the eyes and lens of writer-director Shaka King, Judas and the Black Messiah is a fine, tautly paced historical thriller about an ideological war, made with good, if unspectacular, craft and storytelling. As seen through the performances of its two leads, however, the film takes the form of a woefully impactful American tragedy, mired in the darkest aspects of the country’s politics and indictable toward the power wielded by an establishment that felt threatened by social change. …
Sam Levinson’s intellectual depiction of a troubled romance offers the allure of stylish, energetic cinema, but disappoints at nearly every turn.
Malcolm & Marie is a movie in which two young, attractive people grace gorgeous frames of black-and-white film, deconstructing each other with sharp, well-read lines of dialogue inside a spacious Malibu bungalow. Its specialty is aesthetic and texture, flashing the appearance and trappings of a lovely film while simultaneously playing out as an exhaustive, overwrought two-hander that doesn’t offer much beyond an anatomy of a strained relationship.
Malcolm is a director; Marie is his partner and, in the case of his recently premiered debut feature, his creative muse. The film, never seen but incessantly discussed, is about a young woman…
There were many bright spots in the year when a global pandemic marred and reshaped the film world. These are my ten favorite.
If an optimistic point is to be made to about 2020 as a year for movies, it’s that we certainly had a lot of time on our hands to watch them. When it became clear in March that the COVID-19 pandemic would have an existential impact on our lifestyles, and we collectively withdrew into our homes for each other’s sake, I eagerly planned to use quarantine as an opportunity to immerse myself in the work of directors and movements that I hadn’t yet been acquainted with. …
The dialogue-driven account of four famous friends and their night together tackles pivotal issues of race from an entertaining and insightful angle.
Regina King’s One Night in Miami, adapted by Kemp Powers from his own stage play, is a timely and anecdotal addendum to the contemporary swath of conversations about what it means for a Black person to hold a platform. It is impossible to separate the content of this film, which takes place on the night of February 25th, 1964, from the attritional state of racial justice in 2021, though King thankfully allows us to make that connection for ourselves. …
The Rachel Broshanan thriller vehicle has impactful things to say about crime cinema, but its flawed execution leaves much to be desired.
In the very brief allotment of time devoted to exposition at the beginning of the sleek neo-noir thriller I’m Your Woman, the viewer is instructed to place attention on a perspective rather than a plot. We look through the eyes of Jean (Rachel Broshanan), a young woman living in suburban isolation while her husband Eddie (Bill Heck) engages in the kind of organized high-crime that would endanger Jean if she were to be let in on.
Eddie returns home one afternoon holding an infant boy of unknown origin as a gift for Jean, who is unable to have children. Sometime…
The veteran pitcher has continued a career of postseason brilliance this fall. With their first-ever World Series on the line, Tampa Bay should let him ride.
In what was the biggest game of their season, and maybe even their history, there was no better starting pitcher for the Tampa Bay Rays to turn to than Charlie Morton. The 36-year-old righty was dominant in Game 7 of the ALCS on Saturday night, stifling a potent Houston Astros lineup in 5.2 precise, succinct innings and getting the win that punched the Rays’ ticket to the World Series.
Morton lived in the strike zone against his former team, throwing only 18 balls out of a supremely efficient 66 pitches. All night long, he was able to take command of…
No NBA team is immune to roster mistakes, but the Trail Blazers’ 45-year run of misfortune needs to be acknowledged and analyzed.
It’s 1972, and the Portland Trail Blazers have been an NBA team for twenty-four months. They’ve won 47 basketball games and lost 117, by an average margin of 12 points. They need what every floundering expansion team needs: a franchise player, and at that time, the best franchise players were centers. Bill Russell retired in 1969 after leading Boston to 11 championships in 13 seasons. In his absence, Willis Reed, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Wilt Chamberlain took turns winning Finals MVP. Meanwhile, Portland’s center was someone named Dale Schlueter, a former sixth-round pick with career averages of five points and five…
Hollywood’s foremost creative mind gives us his most harrowing work yet.
Not a single scene, image, or line of dialogue within Dunkirk reveals virtually any information beyond what matters to its lean, mean story . The only context we are given to explain exactly how 400,000 British soldiers found themselves stranded on the wrong side of the English Channel, waiting for their lives to be decided by one side of the war or the other, is a paragraph of opening text so vague that it simply dubs the enveloping German army as “the enemy”. The conclusion is just as enigmatic; once the miraculous evacuation of the beach is over, so is…
Danny Ainge and Brad Stevens’ vision for the C’s is starting to become clear, and it looks an awful lot like the NBA’s biggest powerhouse.
Jae Crowder. Jaylen Brown. Jayson Tatum. Semi Ojeleye. Guerschon Yabusele. Gordon Hayward. All six are listed between 6'6" and 6'8". They can all conceivably play and defend multiple positions. They can all knock down a 3-point shot. And they are all Boston Celtics. Three of the six: Tatum, Ojeleye, and Hayward, were either drafted or signed by the team this summer. They will replace outgoing free agents Amir Johnson, Kelly Olynyk, and Jonas Jerebko; one-dimensional bigs who, while useful, lack the physical tools to be anything beyond spot-up shooters and rebounders. …
