Tag: Movie Review
-
How ‘Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry’ Humanizes Child Stars
When they’re young, they’re America’s darlings but, when they become teens and adolescents, they’re instantly perceived as harbingers of immorality. They’re Lindsay Lohan, Macaulay Culkin, Justin Bieber, and Britney Spears. But, despite what many media outlets, politicians, and the general public may think, they are human beings above anything else. The new Billie Eilish documentary,…
-
The Invitation (2015): Grief is on The Menu
The Invitation takes a creeping look at two simple premises: reuniting with forgotten friends and new-age spiritualism. Though one seems a bit scarier than the other, the film heightens social awkwardness to a macabre level that puts an uncomfortable look on when the social taboo of grief is put on public display.
-
Okja (2017) Review
Okja, Bong Joon-Ho’s 2017 masterpiece, is a satire on corporate greed and comments on animal cruelty with a very diverse perspective. The film takes place in a post-modern world where The Mirando Company has genetically modified giant pigs and placed them with farmers around the world to see what farming techniques will rear the best…
-
“The Father” Movie Review
Florian Zeller brilliantly adapted his touching play, Le Père, into a deeply emotional film starring Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman. Hopkins’ character, also named Anthony, is a man in his 80s who is also struggling with dementia. Colman plays her desperate daughter, Anne, trying to take care of her father as he loses touch with…
-
Operation Desert Suck in “Mine”
For Memorial Day this year, you might want to enjoy a change of pace from the usual collection of WW1, WW2, and Vietnam War movies in order to focus on more contemporary military conflicts. Mine (2016, Netflix), is definitely contemporary, but it’s far from Saving Private Ryan caliber. The movie’s premise is quite engaging: after…
-
One Heck of a Final Girl in “Game Over”
Game Over (2019, Netflix) is one of those rare horrors treats that’s as creative and interesting as it is fun to watch. Psychology blends with the supernatural and a dash of slasher-flick to create a full-bodied thriller with plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing up to the very end. The film’s…
-
“XX” and the Horror of Motherhood
Don’t be fooled by the movie’s title: there’s nothing lascivious about the horror anthology XX (2017, Netflix). Women wrote and directed each segment of XX, including the creepy stop-motion animation opening credits and interstitials by Sofia Carrillo. Men may dominate the horror genre, but women’s pain — both individual and collective — provides a bottomless…
-
What to Watch After “Tiger King”- Recommendations
A.K.A. White Men Being Gross Finishing Tiger King on Netflix can feel like a letdown. What do you watch for the rest of the quarantine? How do you find more things to binge? What about your needs? Other documentaries feel so tame after the dumpster fire flamboyance of Tiger King. There seems to be no…
-
‘A Secret Love’: A Moving Documentary That Falls a Little Short
Heartfelt and moving, Netflix’s documentary A Secret Love (2020) shows the 72 year love story of two women. Director Chris Bolan, great-nephew to Terry Donahue and Pat Henschel, tells the story of his great-aunts and their love and devotion to each other. The story that the film tells is tender, and it’s incredibly sweet to…
-
Millennial Woes Done Right
A messy millennial in an on-and-off relationship with liminal job prospects has been a saturated archetype since Lena Dunham stretched it to its limit for 5 years in her series Girls. It has been haphazardly recreated in many character study-esque television series and tries to worm its way in as b-plots in coming-of-age films. Occasionally…