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Film

'Thor: The Dark World' Comes Close to Being a Viable Story

In Thor: The Dark World there's a dangerous villain, a universe-ending threat, and a star-crossed romance -- but none of it makes sense.

Recent
Film

TIFF 2018: 'Vox Lux'

Brady Corbet's Vox Lux is a horror movie about the link between hedonism and explosive violence in the 21st century. Don't let anyone tell you differently.

Film

Born to Die: Interview with Filmmaker Christopher Quinn and Farmer Frank Reese on 'Eating Animals'

Frank Reese is one of the country's last truly independent farmers, and filmmaker Christopher Quinn tells his story and explores the devastating effects of factory farms on the planet in Eating Animals.

Film

Fear and Loathing in the Zone: 'Annihilation's' Dreamy 'Death Drive'

Annihilation's reflections on what Freudian psychoanalysts have referred to as the 'death drive' offers an account of modern life we cannot ignore.

Music

The Sound of the Shimmer: Interview with Annihilation's Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow

Emmy-nominated composer Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow, music producer and founding member of Portishead, speak with PopMatters about their original score for Alex Garland's science-fiction film, Annihilation.

Film

What 'Annihilation' Shows Us about the Future of Serious Nerd Movies

Contrary to Alex Garland's disappointment that Paramount sold his film to Netflix, it might be a good thing for film nerds.

Film

'Annihilation' Scares and Baffles in Equal Measure

Alex Garland's follow-up to Ex Machina is a visceral cinematic experience that, while plagued with structural problems, delivers plenty of thrills and eye-popping spectacle.

Film

'Thor: The Dark World' Brings the Hammer (and the Enthusiasm) Down

Thor worked due to its surprisingly-effective Shakespearean framework. Thor: The Dark World follows conventional Hollywood tropes and suffers for it.

Reviews

Is 'The Other Woman' Competing in the Cliché Olympics?

Although The Other Woman has the potential to be socially relevant given today’s blended families, it doesn’t present anything new.

Film

Super Spots or Big Blunders

A lot of production, distribution, and marketing companies spent a lot of time and a lot of money to air ads for movies that are six months away. Which ones will make them a lot of money instead of costing exactly that?

Film

Part 1: The Thin Red Line to Star Wars Episode I (January - May 1999)

The first part of PopMatters' look back at the films of 1999 is bookended by the long awaited return of two cinematic auteurs of wildly different styles, Terrence Malick and George Lucas.

Reviews

My Blueberry Nights

Wong's films are structured around images of characters in repose, of interactions weighted with desire, and of individual memory and fantasy.

Reviews

My Blueberry Nights

In Blueberry Nights, attractions are premised on separate losses, cultivations of similar heartaches, and delights in desserts.

Reviews

The Other Boleyn Girl

Based on the bodice-ripping novel by Philippa Gregory, The Other Boleyn Girl is, in a word, ridiculous.

Reviews

Mr. Magoriums Wonder Emporium

The adults aren't fully to blame for their dreariness, as they are saddled with a cumbersome script that too plainly emulates Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Reviews

Goya's Ghosts (Los Fantasmas de Goya) (2006)

If Miloš Forman's movie doesn't take up his distinctive visual style, it does embrace his broad satire, ferociously targeting religious, state, and financial leaders.

Reviews

Free Zone (2005)

After the initial early promise of its opening 15 minutes or so, the film resorts to spinning its wheels, then driving down dead-end alleys, and then plowing head-long into exactly the sort of heavy-handed didactic symbolism that gives me fits and has me reaching for the remote.

Jake Meaney
Reviews

V for Vendetta (2006)

"He's a pretty complex man," says Hugo Weaving of V. "He's been imprisoned and tortured and abused mentally and physically... and then burnt in fire."

Film

Free Zone (2005)

The first shot of Amos Gitai's new film is arresting. Natalie Portman cries for eight minutes.

Cynthia Fuchs
Film

V for Vendetta (2006)

The Natalie Portman film is an earnestly angry, vaguely philosophical, but ultimately generic action movie.

Cynthia Fuchs
Reviews

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

For all its lavish effects, Sith's primary purpose is to showcase Anakin's dilemma.

Cynthia Fuchs
Reviews

Closer (2004)

This leads to titillation, judgment, desire, and commerce all around. How Howard Stern.

Cynthia Fuchs
Reviews

Garden State (2004)

Natalie Portman brings to this sad, strange, vibrant girl her own remarkable, brilliant energy.

Cynthia Fuchs
Film

Closer (2004)

This leads to titillation, judgment, desire, and commerce all around. How Howard Stern.

Cynthia Fuchs
Reviews

Cold Mountain: Collector's Edition (2003)

Anthony Minghella's image of the birds in snow articulates Cold Mountain's aesthetic and themes, its interest in collision and reverie, in nostalgia and resistance.

Cynthia Fuchs
Film

Cold Mountain (2003)

The first scene in Cold Mountain is sensational and sickening, an apt introduction to what will be a Civil War saga.

Cynthia Fuchs
Reviews

Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones

So in a post-September 11th world replete with conflicts from Afghanistan to continuous Palestinian-Israeli disputes, the lines between good and evil often seem blurry, and the cut-and-dry antics of galactic warriors instill a sense of hope, a realization of what morality should be. Who would've thought that the likes of Yoda, Obi Wan Kenobi and Chewbacca would serve as heroes for a celluloid generation whose sense of a world order would become crystal clear as a result of a few fictional characters?"

Tara Taghizadeh
Reviews

Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones

There are so very many characters playing central roles in the second half of the series, and accounting for all of their geneses is tricky indeed.

Todd R. Ramlow
Reviews
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