If you can imagine one of those traumatizing paramedic episodes of “Grey’s Anatomy” combined with Antoine Fuqua’s award-winning “Training Day,” you might get some idea of what “Asphalt City” is going to put you through. Previously titled “Black Flies” when it debuted at Cannes last year, what could have been just another rookie working with […]
Watching Paul Schrader’s latest film is like sitting in an early ’90s medical center waiting room. While you wait, there isn’t much to occupy your time except to look at paintings, magazines or the outdated furniture. Schrader creates a world in “The Card Counter” that’s inescapably dull on purpose. His characters have arrived at the
“Dark Phoenix” director Simon Kinberg has been involved with the X-Men movie franchise since “X3: The Last Stand” (2006). Ironically his introduction into the mutant world was the exact story he’s re-telling here. Kinberg says they didn’t get it right with Jean Grey’s Phoenix story the first time, and while there is a concerted effort to
“It’s a film for the fans,” a familiar phrase uttered almost weekly when discussing superhero movies, sequels or franchise fare. “Ready Player One” is the latest addition, another ambitious Steven Spielberg adaptation, this time based on Ernest Cline’s pop culture novel of the same name. Spielberg himself making a tremendous impact on cinematic culture, is
I went into this superhero movie, sequel, franchise with arms crossed. Annoyed that my summers are now filled with just one comic book adaptation after another. While X-Men Apocalypse (the 6th film in the series) hits theaters three weeks after Marvel’s other franchise Captain America debuted, they screened them for critics back to back. My
Writer/director Rick Alverson seems keen on this observation and from what I heard in the audience at SXSW everyone certainly does have their particular brand of off beat humor.
The second novel to be adapted from Oscar nominated writer Gillian Flynn, Dark Places initially had a lot going for it after the success of Gone Girl. Flynn however did not pen the screenplay for this one, instead writer/director Gilles Paquet-Brenner (Sarah’s Key) took up that responsibility. Even with a terrific cast, Dark Places lacks
Nicholas Cage might not approve of the word comeback, but after taking a year off and delivering a string of commercially and critically unsuccessful films the former action star returns to his independent roots. Director David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express, All the Real Girls) also looks back upon his beginnings with Joe, which takes a
It’s no surprise that Jeff Nichols‘ latest (his third) film, Mud, was the best thing to show at this year’s SXSW film festival. Two years ago, Nichols burst onto the scene with the critically acclaimed and unforgettable Take Shelter. He now returns with a script he wrote during the same summer as Take Shelter, and