Reviews

So was it worth the fuss to create a live action Moana?

If you haven’t seen the animated version of the film, watching the live action remake wouldn’t be the worst way to introduce yourself to the story, but renting the animated version would probably get you about the same amount of joy. That being said, if this is your story, if they’re portraying your ancestors or if you feel connected to the people on the screen, then the live action film has a stronger sense of that simply because it uses human actors. You do feel more of a connection as a human to the story simply because of that fact.

Interviews SIFF

Five minutes with Olivia Wilde

After this year’s Seattle International Film Festival, I wrote of the closing-night film, “If there was ever a movie designed in a lab solely for me to enjoy, it would be The Invite.” Since then, I haven’t shut up about how this dinner-party-from-hell, single-location feature from Olivia Wilde has been my favorite movie of the year so far.

Reviews

Toy Story 5 introduces new tech, retains classic nostalgia

I know Quentin Tarantino isn’t where you thought I’d start my review of Toy Story 5, but bear with me. Tarantino famously refuses to watch the fourth Toy Story film, believing the first three constitute a perfect trilogy. While I can respect skipping the fourth film, please go see the fifth—it’s one of the best things to happen to the series since the original Toy Story. 

Reviews

The Death of Robin Hood insists on dismantling the idea of legend

Michael Sarnowski’s grimy new historical-adjacent thriller dares to ask audiences to consider a deeply uncomfortable question. What if Robin Hood was not, in true fact, a sexy swashbuckling animated fox? Let alone one who stole from the rich to give to the poor? Or to unite with his band of affable outlaws who communed in the forest of Sherwood to thwart the avaricious overreaches of a swishy spoiled despot king? 

Festivals Reviews

Leviticus literalizes the horror of conversion therapy

The metaphors run hot and heavy in this down under horror story about the trauma of gay awakenings. Still, small abandoned conservative towns, spooky religion, and the overwhelming potency of teenage lust remain creepily effective tools when deployed this stylishly.

Reviews

Divine Intervention: finding the truth in Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day

We are conditioned to treat immediate, breathless praise of a new blockbuster with a healthy dose of skepticism. And we should. But Disclosure Day deals in the kind of truth that is impossible to suppress, whether we’re talking about seventy years of government secrets or the reality of the film itself: Steven Spielberg has delivered another late-career masterpiece. It is a film so fiercely entertaining and intellectually stimulating that trying to temper my enthusiasm for it feels like an exercise in dishonesty. It genuinely belongs among his absolute best work.