‘The First Purge’ dives into its original sins
Ah, “The Purge”—the archetype of a filmmaker having one original thought and turning it into a franchise. “What if all crime was legal for one night?” is the kind of…
Ah, “The Purge”—the archetype of a filmmaker having one original thought and turning it into a franchise. “What if all crime was legal for one night?” is the kind of…
Screenwriter Taylor Sheridan seemed invincible. He avoided the pitfalls of a first-time screenplay with “Sicario”, a bleak meditation on the futility of fighting corruption. His follow-up yielded the even better “Hell or…
There’s a subgenre of film in which damaged fathers raise their kids in the wilderness due to problems they have with modern society—the “wilderdad” subgenre, if you will—and before “Leave…
Some things never change. In 1993, the world looked a lot like it does now: America’s relationship with Russia dominated the news, lovers of music prepared for Radiohead’s upcoming tour,…
“Tag” shouldn’t have worked. It revolves around a simple premise taken from real life, but it’s exaggerated and artificially extended to cinematic proportions. It has one message that’s narrated at…
Everyone loved “The Incredibles” in 2004. Despite feverish hopes that its ending was meant to signal a sequel, time marched on without a peep from the Parrs. But here we…
Heavily stylized, hyper-violent, original action films have experienced a revival lately. One could trace this resurgence back to 2012’s criminally ignored “Dredd”, but the genre’s most famous addition is the…
We live in a divided country. Discourse and empathy are in short supply, and a majority of the figures we collectively looked up to have proven to be problematic (or far worse).…
Modern moviegoers are at a disadvantage when it comes to horror classics. Some of the scariest horror movies ever made feel like esoteric relics now—“The Exorcist” has become the first…
There was once a time when “Star Wars” fans waited 16 years for the next movie in the franchise. “Star Wars” lovers had enough time to raise kids of their…
As children, we enjoy juvenile humor. The key to a kids’ funny bone is often asinine and vacuous, signifying nothing. As we grow older, approaching second childishness and mere oblivion,…
“Life of the Party” begins with a generic pop song that would make you change the station after seconds of hearing it on the radio. Watching “Life of the Party”…