Tucked deep in the uncanny valley of Grosse Pointe, Michigan, is a street of towering, decaying Dutch Elm trees. Probe deeper, and beneath the tarmac…
There is no winning in Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) — not really. You can reach the end of a campaign or defeat something very nasty,…
What started more than two decades ago as a completely unexpected shot in the arm for a mostly dead subgenre has steadily declined into being…
There’s a contradiction at the heart of James Cameron’s work, and the reason he’s such a quintessential Hollywood figure is because of, not despite, that…
Let it be said that indie writer-director John Swab is currently the hardest working man in show business, with his second film of the still…
The ’60s and ’70s were a highly politically-charged time for Italian cinema. The country’s neorealism movement chronicled working class lives in a post-WWII Italy — a newly…
Tucked into the lap of the tributaries of the Euphrates River, the city of Babylon once towered. Hammurabi, who conquered the entirety of Southern Mesopotamia,…
Smile is an obnoxious attempt at subverting trauma horror, sunk not only by its own smug conceit but also its failure to capitalize on its unique…
Confess, Fletch isn’t attempting much, but it lands as an amiable bit of diet-Soderbergh primed for a low-key weekend binge. We all complain about what movies…
Despite his reputation as a mainstream hit-maker, Zemeckis has always had a wildly idiosyncratic relationship to both genre and film history. Not as obsessed with…
After nearly a decade of directing expensive mo-cap animated films to variable box-office returns, the 2010s found Robert Zemeckis at a crossroads. The massive critical…
“Imagination is a force that can actually manifest a reality. Don’t put limitations on yourself. Others will do that for you.” — James Cameron When…
Wifelike is the type of science fiction with just enough thematic novelty to compel the viewer, but not enough to make for a satisfying experience. On…
“The problem with Forrest Gump is it made a billion dollars. If we’d just made a successful movie, Bob and I would have been geniuses.…
Orphan: First Kill lacks the pulpy playfulness and satirical intent of the original, entirely misunderstanding its appeal and rendering this sequel an underwhelming curiosity at best.…
Laal Singh Chaddha is an abysmal Forrest Gump remake that eviscerates any sense of Zemeckis’ tonal control and bears none of that film’s emotional stakes.…
Jerry and Marge Go Large presents its larger-than-life tale with restraint and sincerity, imbuing its caper framework with the tenderness of a Christmas comedy. If you’ve…
Artist and critic Fred Camper once called Howard Hawks (and I’m paraphrasing from memory here) the “hardest to define of all the classic Hollywood auteurs,…
Top Gun: Maverick is the ultimate legacy sequel, and a thrilling ode to the fading era of true action movie stars. Slotting squarely into the…
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 doesn’t offer much for either the fetish crowd or kids looking for unencumbered adventure spectacle. Ever since bursting onto the scene in…
The Contractor isn’t much for ambition, but it accomplishes precisely what it sets out to, and lets Chris Pine have a little fun in the meantime.…