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Netflix

#StreamingScene by Steven Warner Film

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga | David Dobkin

June 28, 2020

There is more than a bit of irony to be found in the fact that the new Will Ferrell/Netflix comedy Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga is being released in 2020, the first year since the singing competition’s inception in 1956 that it isn’t taking place (it was canceled due to COVID-19). That the events within the film happen to occur specifically at the 2020 ceremony is, while ultimately not all that important, a strange bit of bad…

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#StreamingScene by Daniel Gorman Film

Wasp Network | Olivier Assayas

Olivier Assayas produced a stunningly idiosyncratic series of works in the 2010s, even by his typically eclectic standards. From the mammoth Carlos to the autobiographical Something in the Air to the cryptic chamber dramas Clouds of Sils Maria and Personal Shopper, Assayas seemed to be searching for new forms, new avenues…

June 24, 2020
#StreamingScene by Steven Warner Film

Da 5 Bloods | Spike Lee

Spike Lee’s newest joint, Da 5 Bloods, makes perfectly clear its influences when, within the first five minutes, the camera pans out from a giant poster of Francis Ford Coppola’s classic Vietnam War treatise Apocalypse Now, itself a spin on Joseph Conrad’s high school…

June 13, 2020
#StreamingScene by Daniel Gorman Film

Extraction | Sam Hargrave

Since being plucked from relative obscurity by uber-producer Kevin Feige, the Russo brothers, Joe and Anthony, have become two of the most commercially successful directors of all time. They now seem determined to emulate their former boss, albeit on a smaller scale. Creating their…

May 5, 2020
#StreamingScene by Daniel Gorman Film

Earthquake Bird | Wash Westmoreland

For some inexplicable reason, Netflix seems to have set its sights on reviving the early-to- mid 90’s boom of erotic thrillers, old-fashioned melodramas mixed with vague neo-noir trappings and done up with a patina of sex and slick, gauzy cinematography (think anything with Rebecca…

November 22, 2019
#BlockbusterBeat by Matt Lynch Film

The Irishman | Martin Scorsese

The Irishman tells the probably-not-entirely-true story of Robert DeNiro’s Frank Sheeran, using cutting-edge visual effects technology to place him inside some of the most important events in American history, right next to a lot of famous people, many of whom wind up dead. It’s…

November 14, 2019
#StreamingScene by Daniel Gorman Film

El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie | Vince Gilligan

It’s incredibly difficult for a television show to stick the landing. Long running programs tend to become different things for different viewers, particularly shows that have fully lodged themselves into pop culture. For every controversial ending (I’m thinking Seinfeld, Lost, and especially The Sopranos) there are…

October 14, 2019
#StreamingScene by Daniel Gorman Film

In the Shadow of the Moon | Jim Mickle

It is endlessly frustrating to see Netflix continue to gobble up talented, idiosyncratic directors and spew out garbled, muddled nonsense. As critic Katie Rife recently wrote over at The AV Club, “the streaming service seems to have a knack for commissioning original films from…

October 3, 2019
In Review | Online film and music criticism
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