Tag: Movies
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Dune (2021)
I first read Frank Herbert’s Dune as a teenager and that’s the right age to meet this hallucinogenic, intergalactic trip of a novel. It’s one of those books that almost literally transports you to another world, and I got lost there a couple of times (the sequels, not so much). So, I was one of…
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A Holiday Hamper
With months of travel restrictions and social distancing still to get through, we could all use some entertainment. So, here are a few favourites from 2020. I didn’t watch nearly enough TV (cough) to claim these are the “Best of the Year”; they’re just personal recommendations based on what I enjoyed. I’m limiting the list…
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Politics is the Enemy of Art
T’is the season for big holiday movies and by coincidence, or because it’s 2020 and the industry’s only a decade or so behind, two of this year’s biggest are lesbian themed romances. Ammonite is a period biography and gloomy art film while Happiest Season is a frothy romcom. Unfortunately, neither is very good.
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Spider-Man 2 (2004)
Okay, I was taken in too. Blech. After Michael Keaton’s quirky but human performance in Batman (1989), and the character driven drama at the heart of the first Spider-Man (2002), I was ready to believe that comic book movies could be taken seriously as films. That is, they didn’t have to be confined to a…
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King Kong (2005)
Just as Wile E Coyote and the Roadrunner are natural enemies so, we’re told, movie directors must fight against evil studio bosses in their eternal struggle to make Great Art despite corporate interference. Lately, though, I’ve been noticing that some of the best movies have actually been made under the thumb if heavy-handed studio oversight.…
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Star Trek (2009)
JJ Abrams’ reboot of the Star Trek franchise begins with a brilliant idea. It travels all the way back to the original series for a new adventure with Kirk, Spock, Bones, and the rest — still the best (and best loved) crew of any Trek franchise. Yet, by focusing on their previously unseen early lives…
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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
Critics of books or movies tend to focus on plot; this is what “the story” is about, after all. And yet, the Harry Potter series stands as evidence of how unimportant plot really is to narrative art. Because the plotting of these incredibly successful books is just awful). The formula, set in the first book,…
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Garden State (2004)
Artsy without being fartsy, quirky without being clueless, Garden State is one of the few good original movies this summer. It is also the perfect answer to those crashing bores who go on and on about how the US is only good at making big, hollow, special effects movies whilst Europe (and perhaps Canada…) produce…