Building off the strength of its predecessor, the new screenlife mystery fumbles its conclusion. — On paper, the screenlife genre seems like a tricky prospect. The restriction of only being able to communicate with information that appears on the digital screen challenges filmmakers to offer a compelling, entertaining narrative without resorting to cheats. Put more bluntly, a film that uses non-traditional narrative techniques, like found…

A series once defined by disdain for fairy tales embraces its mythical roots — It is hard to understate what a strange place the world of animation was in at the turn of the 21st century. The only recently resurrected dominance of the Disney Animation Studios was being easily outclassed by the upstart Pixar, which with just four films under their belt had established…

There are a lot of things to like about Dwayne Johnson’s new superhero movie. Unfortunately, Dwayne Johnson isn’t one of them. — The main impression made by Black Adam, the latest in the seemingly inescapable omnigenre of “superhero movies,” is that it feels like a movie out of time. Which makes sense when you consider the history of it. To one degree or another, star Dwayne Johnson has been connected to the…

Todd Field’s first film in 16 years is a brooding meditation on genius, power and decimation. — For many viewers, much of the opening act of Tár, the new film from elusive writer/director Todd Field, will feel like watching something in a foreign language. Indeed, different languages are spoken throughout the film; English, German, Italian, and Russian all make an apperance. But beyond the actual literal different…

Viola Davis captivates in this historical epic, redefined — Historical epics are a tricky genre. Similar to the biopic, they hold a perceived weight of being historically accurate, offering a sort of historical document. But they also are held to the standard of being engaging pieces of entertainment. And for all the beauty that comes from actual lived experiences…

Robert Zemeckis continues his quest of defeating the uncanny valley, but he gets lost along the way. — One of the most playful sequences in the classic 1940 Disney animated film Pinocchio is a series of gags performed by the various cuckoo clocks found within the woodworker Geppetto’s workshop. These impossibly elaborate clocks interact with the miniscule Jiminy Cricket and are a wonder of playful hand-drawn animation. In…

This boat struggles to stay afloat — Smaller budget filmmaking has always been about maximizing what resources are available to you. Legendary shoestring producer and mentor Roger Corman famously would get access to a distinctive location, say a castle, and then attempt to make as many films as he could in that space before his access dried…

Jordan Peele’s latest reimagines the blockbuster and creates something unlike anything before it — There are few writer-directors whose work comes with more anticipation today than Jordan Peele. This reputation is mostly off the strength of his directorial debut, the Academy Award-winning Get Out, which immediately established him as one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary film. So when information came out about…

But what else would you expect from Baz Luhrmann? — The opening ten to fifteen minutes of Elvis are exhausting. In a delightful way. It opens depicting Tom Hanks under stifling fat make-up as the infamous Colonel Tom Parker, apparently living his final restless days in Las Vegas. Serving as a narrator, he begins to extol the audience on his…