Wag the Dog Turns Manufactured Reality Into Political Entertainment
At its core, Wag the Dog is about who controls reality when most people experience that reality thro…
Collateral Finds Freedom in the Fight Against a Life of Passivity
Collateral is the kind of movie that feels like it should have left a larger cultural footprint. Rel…
X2 Asks What Happens When Fear Becomes Policy
X-Men proved in 2000 that comic-book movies didn’t have to be campy to succeed, but it still p…
Guardians of the Galaxy Finds a Family Among the Broken
By 2014, the Marvel Cinematic Universe had established itself as Hollywood’s dominant superher…
Pulp Fiction Is a Brilliant Collision of Violence, Fate and Redemption
Few films have had the cultural impact of Pulp Fiction. Quentin Tarantino’s second feature arr…
Captain America: Civil War Turns Superhero Accountability Into a Personal War
Captain America: Civil War is one of the MCU’s most ambitious films, taking one of Marvel̵…
Eternals Is an Ambitious Marvel Epic Buried Beneath Too Much Story
Eternals is one of the MCU’s strangest experiments. Arriving during the COVID-19 era with a gr…
X-Men Is the Film That Helped Make Superhero Movies Serious
Before the MCU transformed superhero movies into Hollywood’s dominant cinematic language, X-Me…
Ant-Man Finds the Heart of a Superhero Story in Fatherhood and Redemption
Ant-Man may follow the familiar Marvel formula, but underneath its shrinking technology and lighthea…
Looper Is a Wickedly Entertaining Time-Travel Thriller About Breaking the Cycle
Looper takes one of science fiction’s most familiar concepts and turns it into something surpr…
Black Panther Is a Vibrant Exploration of Power, Tradition and Responsibility
Black Panther is one of the MCU’s most ambitious films because it is interested in much more t…
Captain Marvel Is a Mixed Bag of Nostalgia, Empowerment and MCU Retconning
Captain Marvel arrives at an interesting point in the MCU. Coming after Avengers: Infinity War hinte…
Thor Is a Rough First Draft of an MCU Icon
Thor is an interesting snapshot of the MCU before Marvel had completely figured out what to do with …
The Devil Wears Prada 2: A Stylish Sequel That Has Little Reason to Exist
The Devil Wears Prada 2 shifts its focus away from the cost of ambition and toxic workplace culture …
Wild Things: A Twisty Erotic Thriller That Gets Lost in Its Own Deception
Wild Things is the kind of movie that practically dares its audience to figure out who is manipulati…
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: A Horror-infused Marvel Adventure That Leaves You Wanting More
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is one of the more distinctive entries in the Marvel Cin…
The Devil Wears Prada: Fashion, Power and the Price of Success
The Devil Wears Prada remains one of the most recognizable workplace films of the 2000s, blending fa…
X-Men: The Last Stand – A Franchise Derails With an Overstuffed Finale
Following the success of X-Men and the outstanding X2, the third installment arrived under difficult…
Spider-Man: Brand New Day Is Peter Parker’s Best MCU Story
Following the universe-altering conclusion of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Spider-Man: Brand New Day wis…
Lord of War: A Chilling Look at the Business of War That Is as Relevant Today as Ever
Lord of War is one of the rare crime dramas that leaves its audience feeling more unsettled after th…
Ticket to Paradise: A Gorgeous Romantic Comedy That Never Lives Up to Its Potential
On paper, Ticket to Paradise has all the ingredients of a modern romantic comedy. George Clooney and…
The Brady Bunch Movie: A Clever Fish-Out-of-Water Comedy That Is Very Much a Product of Its Time
The Brady Bunch Movie succeeds because it understands exactly what made the original television seri…
Crime 101: A Stylish Crime Thriller That Lives in Heat’s Shadow
From its opening scenes, Crime 101 makes no secret of its ambitions. Bart Layton crafts a sleek cat-…
Happy Death Day: A Clever Blend of Horror and Comedy That Never Fully Commits to Either
Happy Death Day wears its influences on its sleeve, functioning as a cross between Groundhog Day and…