‘Ozark’ season four part two: A good enough end to a good enough series
To say ‘endings are hard’ is probably the greatest understatement in all of writing. A story IS its ending. Endings are the culmination of all the emotion and time and detail invested into the narrative; the greater tapestry revealed after all of the individual threads when been carefully woven together. A good ending elevates a […]
‘Everything, Everywhere, All at Once:’ a multiverse of meaning
From “Rick and Morty” and “Into the Spider-Verse” to upcoming blockbusters like “Multiverse of Madness” and the “Flash” movie, the concept of traversing parallel universes is currently experiencing a cultural renaissance, and it is no great stretch of the imagination to see why. It’s fun to cast off from the hum-drum wasteland of our known […]
The bloodless husk that is ‘Morbius’
In the face of the masterfully designed entertainment domination conspiracy known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), it’s difficult to recall the dark age that preceded the first Iron Man movie, when comics were silly nerd fodder and decade-spanning, multi-franchise Superhero macrocosms were laughable fantasy. In this “before time,” outside the secluded bubbles of the […]
Thoughts on a ‘Bioshock’ movie: all the light has gone out of my life
Caring about things is the gateway drug to disappointment. I have been burned by this simple fact again and again. I loved “Game of Thrones,” and then season eight happened. I loved “Star Wars” and then the sequel trilogy happened. Like the bright-eyed romantic I am, I always rush into another escapist diversion, thinking that […]
The frivolous follies of ‘The Cuphead Show!’
I can say, with absolute certainty, that there is no currently popular IP that more readily lends itself to an animated adaptation than “Cuphead.” For the uninitiated, “Cuphead” is a run and gun video game from 2017, designed and hand animated in the style of 1920s and ’30s rubber hose cartoons (think Steamboat Mickey and […]
‘Ozark’ Season 4 Part 1: same stress, different day
Despite having long languished in its comparisons to Breaking Bad, “Ozark” has always been and remains one of the most electrifying shows on Netflix. The harrowing story of an in-too-deep financial advisor and his unassuming family being forced to launder Mexican cartel money in the boonies of Missouri, “Ozark” has, over its previous three seasons, […]
‘Army of Thieves’ stole my time
The very existence of this movie feels like a joke. In a wasteland of endless remakes, spin offs, prequels and sequels, I cannot conceive of a better apotheosis of pointlessness than a film recounting the backstory of a safe cracker from “Army of the Dead,” a movie everyone thought was okay, and nobody still talks […]
‘The Last Duel’ doesn’t quite finish the fight
A good story told badly is an infuriating waste of time, but a great story told only adequately is in many ways worse. These movies are depressing wastes of time. Like ferraris idling in dead-lock traffic, these mediocre movies are garish displays of talent that are never fully acted on and possibly never fully realized. […]
‘No Time to Die’ leaves you shaken, but sadly not stirred
Among the many movie franchises that have strung about through cinematic history, the James Bond series has always stood out for its self-contained identity. For decades, each film had been a stand alone feature, with the only throughline being James Bond and his pit crew at MI6. Even when James got married in 1969, Tracy […]
