I watched this late last year and it’s a tough film to take in multiple ways. The sheer moroseness both cuts deep at isolated moments and proves repetitive and numbing over four hours; all the while, you can never forget that the artist lived this depression until he felt he no longer could, and this very same…

I’ve been a film critic for more than 8 years. It is pretty neat... that is, when you have at least some control over what you get to write about, and aren’t required to watch two or three new releases each week. In other words, when you consistently freelance while making additional money elsewhere. I’ve been very…

That first dance scene is one for the ages, but afterwards this quickly became tedious for me. I’m a fan of I Stand Alone and Irreversible, because they’re powered not just by Noe’s aggressive style but strong, full-bodied characters and performances (and, yes, ideas); by contrast, I found no compelling people here,…

Yes, it makes total sense that a film writer who knows about and has seen Judy Garland in Easter Parade has no idea of the renowned performance she gave in a much better-known movie. It can’t be that the author maybe just wanted to go with something not so thuddingly obvious.

I saw this after becoming a big Garland fan two years ago and most of it hasn’t stuck with me, but “A Couple of Swells” is one of the more delightful things either she or Astaire ever did. Never fails to cheer me up. I find Garland magnetic no matter what she does, but there’s a difference between how she plays prim-an…

Even ROTK at least is smart enough to give weight to CG spectacle by preceding it with significant character moments, like Theoden’s speech to his army or Aragorn’s “For Frodo”. That’s not something I’ve seen or, frankly, would expect to see in a Marvel movie, although Endgame presents as good an opportunity as…

Pretty Woman and the 2008 Sex and the City are the only movies ahead of it worldwide. My Big Fat Greek Wedding is the only one ahead in the U.S. Hitch, There’s Something About Mary and Crazy Rich Asians are extremely close to it domestically and/or worldwide, though, they only fell a few million short. It also helped t…

It opened three months after HDD so it must have already been in the can before that premiered.

It’s good to know that this continues to utilize Rothe well but I still feel like the original should have launched her beyond this. When it came out I thought for sure that I was watching an Easy A-level a-star-is-born performance.

Excellent review, the movie has been on my radar for a while but this ensures I’ll see it. Need to check out Love Songs as well.

I loved him in Somewhere back in 2010, a strong performance that didn’t kick off an A-list comeback; really happy to see him now nailing the kind of role any actor would dream of. 

Good advice for anyone, though those don’t rely on editing to the same extent. Luhrmann and Marshall’s stuff in particular comes across like they wanna do Fosse on steroids and that I can’t roll with.

It legitimately pulled a mini-Titanic at the box office. Pretty fun movie so I don’t begrudge it the success.

Any director and editor who want to cut together a great musical number need to watch Cabaret, take notes, and not be under the delusion that they can improve on that.

That’s from Cleo from 5 to 7! He’s a lot of fun in that movie. 

I’ve listened to the Young Girls of Rochefort soundtrack literally close to 200 times since I first saw it two years ago, and it’s as fresh and joyous now as it was the first time. Honestly I’d be fine if that was the only music available to me for the rest of my life.

This is my favorite movie of 2018 so I appreciate everything said here and the fifth paragraph in particular. I’ve been pretty disillusioned about the Academy for a while but the fact that even the critics’ awards almost completely ignored this stuns me. That we can have something this remarkable and invigorating but…

Get Out, Fury Road, Grand Budapest, Boyhood all came out in spring/summer and were big contenders recently. BlacKkKlansman is in a similar position this year. In many other cases I think the last-3-months thing has become a vicious circle where the distributors themselves hold off on releasing films they think have…

I guess one ironic consequence of her Oscar-winning performance being the notoriously “uglied-up” one is that now people take her for granted even in other obviously physically challenging or transformative roles. And the thing is that she IS remarkably natural in those, there’s no bullshit or give-me-awards…

I’ve seen The Wife. It’s surprisingly decent for half the runtime, then totally sabotages itself in terms of story. Close is easily the best thing about it, and it wouldn’t just be a career Oscar if she won. Definitely more impressive than Gaga, at least.