Every movie needs a goal for its heroes to work towards–a holy grail or treasure they seek. In romances, it’s love; in action movies, it’s defeating an enemy; in comedies it’s winning over an adversary. In The Endless Summer, it’s the perfect wave. Along their journey, our intrepid heroes Mike Hynson and Robert August find…
What is punk? Is it a style, a music genre, or an attitude? Director Alex Cox argues that it’s all three–but only the the latter is the genuine article–in Repo Man, a film about a young Los Angeles punk named Otto (Emilio Estevez) who has a day that seems to confirm how much bullshit everything…
Ahh, 1980’s sitcoms. One of the more comforting pop culture artifacts to a nostalgic mind, there were never cozier worlds built in fiction than the ½ hour laugh track-driven situation comedies of that decade. Featuring near-perfect families who lived in gigantic houses and got into weekly shenanigans that may or may not end up in…
Streaming services have so much content available, but more often than not you’re just scrolling endlessly through the screens unable to pick something. And boy, is there a lot of crap on there! But there are also fantastic movies on these services, as well, and if you haven’t seen some of the great classics available, here’s…
Although somewhat difficult to imagine in contemporary times, for the majority of human history life was a brutal experience. Minor cuts could turn into major infections that could necessitate amputation or end in death; a case of the flu or strep throat could be terminal; violent crimes were difficult to investigate to any accuracy; might…
If there’s one unifying element to Martin Scorsese’s films, it’s alienation. Specifically, the alienation of his male protagonists: whether successes (Howard Hughes in The Aviator, Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street, or Sam “Ace” Rothstein in Casino), failures (Rupert Pupkin in The King of Comedy, Frank Pierce in Bringing Out the Dead, and…
Why do we like terrible movies? Not just bad movies, or mediocre movies–those are depressingly common and a ton come out each year from big and independent studios alike. Those are then shuffled off into the catacombs of daytime airings on Showtime and the dregs of streaming services, never reaching over two stars in their…
There are great films that change the landscape of cinema: your Citizen Kanes and Godfathers and Days of Heavens and such and such. Then you have films that are moving depictions of the human condition and of overcoming adversity to find one’s place in the world: The Color Purple, for example, and another film I’m…
Look, there is a lot of content out there available to stream these days. So instead of endlessly, aimlessly scrolling through the pages scanning titles that seem vaguely familiar but you don’t know if they’re any good–or else of movies and TV shows you’ve heard are good but haven’t gotten around to watching, why not…
My folks took my sisters and I to the movies frequently when I was a kid, and I was lucky enough to see some great films in the theaters as a result, including Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Batman, and Back to the Future, Part II. Besides this, since my dad was such a film…
Let’s talk about Adam West, who passed away today at the age of 88 after a long acting career where he started off as an actor, became a caricature, and then ended it by playing a heightened version of himself. West always came across as a rather affable, if somewhat loopy, guy. Even though he…
How easy it is to forget that people have always been the same throughout history. Even thousands of years ago, people loved and hated, desired power, feared death, and went about the daily business of living. In short, they were flesh and blood and mortal and full of fault and doubts and weaknesses, just like…
