Godzilla the Union Buster
There’s a bitter irony in how Oscar-winning Godzilla Minus One, produced by a notorious union-busting production company, is celebrated for its message of collective strength.
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‘The Boys’ Season 4 Is a Bloody Descent into Hell
Erik Kripke’s gory superhero satire The Boys takes a visceral plunge into political and personal tragedy, showing there’s more to fear than just corrupt superheroes.
Crime Sells in TV: ‘The Responder’, ‘Shardlake’, and ‘Eric’
For compelling and worrisome reasons, crime sells in our TV entertainment. The Responder, Shardlake, and Eric feed our brutal compulsion in varying ways.
Is ‘Love Lies Bleeding’ An Act of Surrender?
After her psychological-horror debut Saint Maud, cinema took Rose Glass’ bright new voice in genre filmmaking and, with Love Lies Bleeding, clipped her wings.
Alex Garland’s ‘Civil War’ Refuses Righteousness
Alex Garland’s Civil War refuses righteousness. Instead, it takes a hard, unflinching look at the true costs of war for everybody and everything it touches.
Three TV Shows That Promise an Intriguing Viewing Experience
These three TV shows of early spring 2024 are the most compelling, mind-boggling, and expensive-looking ones to watch before you go back out in the sun.
‘Love Lies Bleeding’ Drips with Danger and Desire
Rose Glass drenches Love Lies Bleeding in sensation and texture, as if she dragged the film through pools of viscera on the floor of a Foley sound effects studio.
Chewing the Scenery and Chewing on Actors in ‘Man-Eater of Kumaon’
Sabu and a tiger foreshadow Byron Haskin’s special effects and science fiction adventures of humans vs. the elements in Man-Eater of Kumaon.
Trapped in the Long Tomorrow: ‘Blade Runner’, Cyberpunk, and Our Stuck Future
Blade Runner serves our vision of an inevitable dystopian future because we live in a “stuck future”, refusing to heed cyberpunk’s warning.
The King of Monsters Returns to His Roots in ‘Godzilla Minus One’
Takashi Yamasaki’s Godzilla Minus One returns to the roots of the origin story with essential drama that gives weight to the monstrous spectacle.
David Fincher’s ‘The Killer’ Is a Deadly Satire of the Corporate World
You can read David Fincher’s The Killer as a story about a murderer, or you can see it as the satire of our pathetic little existence that it really is.
‘Expend4bles’ Is a Convoy of Clichés
The only thing that salvages Scott Waugh’s unpronounceable Expend4bles from the usual action film clichés is the franchise’s new star, Jason Statham