Monday, December 19, 2022

Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)

As far as I’m concerned, an Avatar movie does not need to be 3+ hours long. This one treats the audience to the best VFX yet seen in a major motion picture. It’s 90 minutes of anti-war VFX, 90 minutes of anti-whaling VFX, and a few minutes in the part of a screenplay called “resolution” to tie up loose ends.

I don’t see the point of these big dumb Hollywood blockbusters. If this were 30 minutes shorter and had more than a dozen non-VFX shots, I might recommend it.

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Thursday, July 28, 2022

Nope (2022)

I don’t know what Jordan Peele’s personal standards are, but I will say this: This is a good movie, but maybe not by its director’s cinematic standards. Or rather, maybe he wanted to try something more on the sci-fi side with less horror, which I think is a good idea. However, I did not feel much dread or peril watching this film, and that lack of tension made for a pretty but ultimately mediocre experience.

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Friday, June 10, 2022

Crimes of the Future (2022)

I sit in the tiny arthouse theater that thumbs its nose at “mainstream” film in a town that resents cultural outliers. The screening room is empty. I know what I’m getting into. This is David Cronenberg’s return to cinema.

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Saturday, April 2, 2022

Webmaster (1998)

The title of the ultimate cyberpunk film is not a mathematical construct, it’s a profession and a way of life. Open your tubes to Webmaster.

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Friday, December 31, 2021

The Matrix: Resurrections (2021)

Even for a hardcore Matrix fan, this is a difficult film to describe. Other critics didn’t cover it on release day, and still haven’t covered it. That’s not to say it’s bad, it just asks a lot of its audience.

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