Author: Chris Burlingame

Reviews

Black Bag is a wickedly fun spy thriller that respects your time by not wasting any of it

by Chris Burlingame

Black Bag is a sleek, sophisticated, and sexy thriller with some exceptional filmmaking from Soderbergh. At 93 minutes, not a moment is wasted. Once the plot is established, momentum propels the film like a brisk clip. This is not an action film, though. Soderbergh and Koepp are interested in the letting the story unfold while allowing us into the minds of the exceptionally cerebral players. Why does each character do what they do? Are they being manipulated? Or are they doing the manipulating? Is remaining loyal to your country and your partner mutually exclusive?

Reviews

Paddington in Peru completes the most loveable trilogy in film

by Chris Burlingame

I don’t remember much from my single-digit years, but I do remember having a fondness for Paddington Bear somewhere around first or second grade. I found him easily loveable and lacking any sense of maliciousness. When “they” started putting out live action Paddington movies a decade ago, I realized I still do.

Interviews News

Seattle filmmaker Vee Hua is hoping to turn their short film Reckless Spirits into a feature, and needs your help

by Chris Burlingame

Tuesday night, me and a bunch of cooler, hipper people, packed into the Northwest Film Forum for the launch party of a fundraising campaign for Reckless Spirits, a very funny short film from 2022 that the filmmakers hope to turn into a feature film in the future. Directed by former NWFF executive director Vee Hua 華婷婷, the film is billed as “A gender-fluid Latine performance artist and a neurotic Asian American therapist are led by a series of uncanny circumstances into a world of chakras, spirits, and a fanatic cult leader.”