Despite some distracting narrative choices and sketchy character development (especially with Mara’s character, who, of course, turns into a love interest), the film does eventually find its footing
Van Helsing is a distant memory by the time we reach Dracula (aka Drac) in the present day, feeling lonely at Hotel Transylvania, his secret resort run by and for monsters, where demonic creatures and other surreal abominations of nature are allowed to vacation free of human meddling
Skyscraper is a family-bonding adventure film starring Dwayne Johnson, Neve Campbell and two elementary-aged children who are as good at appearing darling (in the early scenes) as they are at playacting the role of traumatized hostages (in the later scenes)
Shock and Awe is a 90-minute liberal told-you-so, a polemic that, like a long Rachel Maddow segment, is more cheery than thunderous, even as it names the names that must be named
… The plot’s developments at times could seem tenuous, but I found them totally daring and confident, as though Riley knew the rules of every screenwriting guide and the demand for “realism,” and he said, “Nah, I’m good,” because he had bigger points to make …
The film even confronts its own audience in some ways, as it goes from a tale of three people learning more about their identities, to one about the very nature of human identity itself …
… There’s an urgency and an anger this time around that helps paper over some of the story’s messiness, as well as some of the awkward drama of trying to explain where this whole crazy Purge idea actually came from
The writers, who include Flynn as well as series creator Marti Noxon (Mad Men, UnREAL, Dietland), don’t exactly hit viewers over the head with the retrograde gender politics of small-town America, but those dynamics are firmly on display
Reed and Rudd deliver plenty of the goofy antics we’ve now come to expect from Ant-Man: size-change cock-ups, charming incompetence on the macho bluster front, etc.
At first, Whitney gives off the unpleasant whiff of dirty laundry being aired, as the members of Houston’s inner circle, speaking alone in front of the camera, dish on the family’s secrets
Sorry to Bother You sings in a voice all its own, thanks to the righteous vision of Riley, known for his 1990s hip-hop group the Coup and his vocal support for labor rights
Nancy’s life starts to look like it might change when her mom dies, and then, not long after, she sees a news report on TV about a couple whose 5-year-old daughter disappeared mysteriously 30 years ago
… As we see the propane tanks and apple boxes and tarps that father and daughter have gathered, we don’t need to be told that these two are not just out camping; they live in the woods
… Eating Animals proves persuasive mostly in its diagnosis of what has gone wrong, and in its account of how it went wrong on such a massive scale (through thumbnail histories of KFC, Tyson, and Chicken McNuggets)
… It’s nice that writer/director Shana Feste’s family comic drama Boundaries shows an adult woman reluctant to let her vagabond dad back into her life — for good reason
Jay Longino’s sap-filled script turns Drew into a mythological Zen master, dispensing words of wisdom after living a life of solitude and regrets when he’s not chasing after buckets
This ultra-violent crime thriller, satirizing some of Americans’ most despicable, imperialist impulses, somehow seems as though it is from a quieter, more decent time — and that’s depressing
Harper and Charlie’s flirty dialogue rushes by at screwball comedy speeds, a funny affectation that’s no less effective now than it was in movies like It Happened One Night or The Lady Eve
Granik says this about that near-decade between her narrative films: “It’s been like psycho-cardio workout on steroids the past eight years.”
… Much like a paper by a student who has read the wiki but not the work, Mary Shelley marshals its evidence without revealing more, without connecting to the soul of the matter.
The show’s production designers and costumers clearly revel in Claws’ setting; everything is slightly overdone, Florida-style, right down to the elaborately detailed designs that Desna’s salon specializes in
Like Nanette, Rape Jokes is in part a deconstruction of comedy itself, particularly the debates in recent years over what should, or shouldn’t, be acceptable in a stand-up set
