Jun 29, 2020Why you watch: Crooklyn (1994)It’s time for Spike Lee’s love letter to his mother and his neighborhood to be rediscovered for what it still is: an act of radical exuberance. There’s no doubt that White America’s crash course on systemic racism is long overdue and like most cram sessions, it’s going to involve some…Movie Review6 min readMovie Review6 min read
Jun 8, 2020Why you watch: Talk to Me (2007)Kasi Lemmons skipped the pieties while directing this biopic about a legendary DJ and his manager, to deliver a hilarious and heartbreaking look at black ambition. Right there at the top of my pet peeves about the movies is the way both critics and fans talk about directing talent as…Movie Review8 min readMovie Review8 min read
May 26, 2020Why You Watch: The Hospital (1971)Even if this bleak, blistering comedy mines our broken healthcare system for plenty of laughs, it still shows how a director can fail a script. Let’s say we’ve just finished watching a terrible picture, one of those inert cinematic turds that ruin the very idea of movies, and we want…Movies To Watch9 min readMovies To Watch9 min read
May 18, 2020Why You Watch: Quiz Show (1994)Robert Redford’s exposé on a game show scandal from the 1950s bombed at the box office, but it remains a brilliant look at the dangers of TV giving us exactly what we want. This may come as a shock to certain corners of the internet, but the entertainment industrial complex…Movies To Watch9 min readMovies To Watch9 min read
May 11, 2020Why you watch: Bug (2006)William Friedkin adapted Tracy Letts’ hit play into a hot-house of paranoia and body horror that shows why conspiracy theories are so satisfying. “I wish this wasn’t true,” is the single most disingenuous thing a conspiracy nut can say. Look at the smug, manic glee they have as they spin…Horror Movies7 min readHorror Movies7 min read
May 4, 2020Why you watch: Drunken Angel (1948)Akira Kurosawa’s early classic reimagines the crime flick into a stylish meditation of what real virtue might be. DRUNKEN ANGEL is remembered primarily for its firsts: the first time Kurosawa worked with his frequent star, Toshiro Mifune, and the first picture Kurosawa felt was truly his own, even if it…Movie Review8 min readMovie Review8 min read
Apr 27, 2020Why you watch: Salem’s Lot (1979)Vampires rarely terrify anyone anymore, but the original TV miniseries of Stephen King’s novel still disturbs, thanks to its canny reconfiguring of the classic monster. The fiction of Stephen King has become its own undead entity, rising from the grave to be adapted again and again, usually with a fatter…Horror Movies8 min readHorror Movies8 min read
Apr 20, 2020Why you watch: Doc (1971)Long out of print, Frank Perry’s salty revisionist Western just showed up on Amazon Prime, and here’s why it should never disappear again. Can we finally retire the idea that Westerns are about white and black hats? By now, the genre has spent as much time deflating frontier myths as…Essential Westerns8 min readEssential Westerns8 min read
Apr 13, 2020Why you watch: The Ice Harvest (2005)This great comic noir slipped through the cracks, but it’s ripe to be rediscovered, given how prescient it was about why we’d eventually sink this low. Few things have aged as poorly as the idea of suburban ennui, where a reliable salary and a good home in a safe neighborhood…Movie Review8 min readMovie Review8 min read
Apr 6, 2020Why you watch: Daniel Isn’t Real (2019)This whip-smart indie about a truly terrible imaginary friend is a great example of how to ground a horror premise without muting its grand, gonzo imagination. I’m not looking forward to the glut of pandemic pictures headed our way, given the pretentious streak already running through horror movies right now…Movies To Watch8 min readMovies To Watch8 min read
