Month: November 2016

Moonlight is one of the most important movies of 2016.  It looks at a part of life most people know nothing about – homosexuality in the African American community- and looks at in great depth, with excellent filmmaking and great performances. However, I didn’t love it. This is nowhere near a bad movie.  In fact, two-thirds of the movie are absolutely brilliant, and some of the toughest, most emotional cinema I’ve seen all year.  But,…

Arrival is a jaw-dropping masterpiece.  It is a simple story at its surface, but peels back layers to reveal something truly special.  Dennis Villeneuve has created a powerful, visually stunning film that pushes the science-fiction genre to new heights. When alien spaceships land all across the globe, the government seeks the help of a linguist (Amy Adams) to help communicate with the aliens. Amy Adams is one my favorite actresses ever and is one of the…

While watching Hacksaw Ridge, Mel Gibson’s latest war epic, their was a quote that stood out to me the whole time; “Say what you want about Mel Gibson, but the son of a bitch knows story structure.” This, of course, is from the great South Park episode, Imaginationland, who notoriously imagined Gibson as an insane, Daffy Duck-like figure who runs around in his underwear grabbing his nipples.  Now, I’m sure Gibson doesn’t run around in his underwear grabbing his nipples,…

Doctor Strange marks the 14th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and it is definitely the weirdest and most ambitious Marvel film to date.  Though it bares similarities to other Marvel films and hits all the standard themes and tropes of all their intro films, this is a film that pushes the studio’s boundaries both cinematically and narratively. Doctor Strange has, essentially, the same premise as the original Iron Man (2008).  An arrogant doctor (Benedict Cumberbatch), known for his…