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…
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…
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…
