A movie I wanted to like more than I did… What Works: Jon Bernthal, Anna Kendrick, John Lithgow, Jeffrey Tambor, J.K. Simmons, Jean Smart, and Ben Affleck? No movie with a cast this good—and all are lively here, doing what they can—can be all bad, and I would estimate that most of the film’s best moments…
Movie Review: Queen of Katwe
The Disney film about a young Ugandan girl (newcomer Madina Nalwanga as Phiona Mutesi) living in extreme poverty who gradually becomes a chess master. David Oyelowo plays her ultra-supportive coach and a (heavier than usual) Lupita N’yongo plays her more ambiguous mother. What Works: Director Mira Nair treats it more like an intimate play than a…
Movie Review: Masterminds
A forgettable heist film that–see, you already forgot this movie came out a month ago didn’t you? What Works: If you laugh at all during this “comedy” (starring Zach Galifi–you know who I mean–as an armored car driver who gets talked into a heist) it’ll probably be during the first third of the film, the…
Episode 43–The Gender Episode
We dive deep into all things men, women, and everyone in-between in a stand-out episode. Big questions are explored like: Are men and women really different in 2016? Is Trump the epitome of what women like Hillary have always had to fight against? Have women already surpassed men and how will that affect dating, marriage,…
Movie Review: Don’t Breathe
The one where three teenage burglars (Suburgatory’s Jane Levy among them) decide to break into a blind man’s (“Avatar” villain and professional badass Stephen Lang) house. And if robbing a blind man sounds bad on paper, just wait until you see the secrets this particular blind man is hiding… What Works: First-time film director Fede Alvarez must have…
Movie Review: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
Just…enough What Works: For me, there is just not much to recommend here. I guess the few brief flashes of fun are mostly found on Eva Green’s cartoon campy face (which you’ve now seen in several other fantasies) and a handful of cool visuals, but mostly this is a huge wash. What Doesn’t: Other critics are saying…
Episode 42–Are Our Elections a Big Business?
Hot on the heels of the 3rd and (mercifully) final debate, we take you inside “the Election Industrial Complex.” We find that Trump is right about our elections being rigged, but—of course—not in the way he means. Why are incumbents more likely to die in office than be defeated? Why does the candidate who spends…
Episode 41–What is Corruption? And Free Don Siegelman
We spend the first half of the episode making sense of Big Don’s implosion, tallying the numerous scandals and recapping his second debate performance. Then we ask “What is Corruption?” in 2016, and notice that a lot of American corruption seems to be how corruption is prosecuted and investigated in the first place–i.e. along party…
Reviews: Creative Control, The Invitation, High Rise, Cop Car, Green Room
Several indie-thrillers have slipped through the cracks this year, until now… Cop Car…Technically, this film came out in 2015 but it’s theaterical release is a small fraction of the people who’ll watch this at home and perhaps years later. It’s about two boys who run away from home only to stumble upon a (seemingly) abandoned cop…
Quick Reviews: The Mermaid, The Wave, The Last Man on the Moon, Everybody Wants Some
Every once and a while, a movie slips through the cracks, and that’s when it’s time for “quick reviews”… Everybody Wants Some…Richard Linklater (“Boyhood,” “Before” trilogy, “Dazed and Confused” of which this movie is a spiritual sequel to) has built a career out of the tricky feat of making naturalistic indies that are actually enjoyable…
Live-Blogging the Second Presidential Debate…
This is the only presidential debate on a weekend…ehhhh… 6:00 P.M.–A quick look at the audience makes it seem like the entire crowd could carpool home in an SUV. My God, where are the people? 6:02–Looks like NBC has gone with showing a football game—priorities are right, I guess—so I’m forced to watch this one…
Episode 40–How Do Democrats Lose? The Southern And Northern Strategy
Can the Democrats take back the white working class? And how did they lose them in the first place? Tricky questions that we attempt to answer by looking deep into the history of the Democratic Party–which contained MLK and George Wallace at the same time–and how the Southern Strategy cost them the white working class decades…
Live-Blogging the VP Debate
This should be a real event. A boring guy with white-ish hair vs. a boring guy with very white hair… 6:00 p.m…even the pre-debate montage of these guys makes them look boring. I can almost hear the editor of this clip package “Hey guys, you can’t make a turnip sexy.” 6:05…A debate moderator I’ve never…