If there is not a Kung Fu Panda 4, this film will be an excellent end point for the series. It brings the story to a fulfilling and satisfying ending, growing all of the characters well beyond anything we would have thought possible at the beginning of the first film.
The Revenant is a work of art by director Alejandro G. Iñárritu. It is visceral, grim, hopeful, beautiful, frightening and joyful. At its core a story of survival and revenge, the film unabashedly comments on humankind’s place and relationship with nature and each other. Set against a breathtaking backdrop of mountains, rivers, trees and…
The best movie epics offer different levels of storytelling as a way of maximizing their scale and sense of adventure. These mammoth films should transport the audience beyond the screen and allow it to experience many stabs, jolts and gusts of emotion, then leave us with the lingering feeling we just embarked on a wholesome, emotionally satisfying …
The intrepid duo of Wallace and Gromit made their debut in 1989 with the animated short “A Grand Day Out,” which first appeared on the film festival circuit, then found its way to the BBC for a Christmas Day showing. Creator Nick Park had begun work on the stop-motion short in 1982 while at university, and continued working…
The Boy and the World, originally titled O Menino e o Mundo tell the simplistically beautiful story of a Boy, who, sparked by the disappearance of his father, embarks on a journey to find his dad and get his family back together. As his journey takes him across the world, the Boy is confronted with themes of civilization, industrialization and …
There’s a lot of Wes Anderson in his 2009 adaptation of Fantastic Mr. Fox, possibly as much authorship as Roald Dahl, the author of the book on which the film is based. From the first frame, we can tell that the story is going to be told on a plane, with 90 degree angles being the sharpest turns we take, from the whip-pans of…
On October 4th of 2007, the world was treated to Michael Dougherty’s delightfully twisted and funny Trick ‘r Treat, providing many with a new Halloween favorite to revisit throughout the ensuing years. Promptly, as these genre films tend to do, it found a massive cult fandom, years later spurring the production of a sequel announced …
Depicting apathy onscreen is a tricky thing, which is why there aren’t too many adaptations of existentialist works out there (they made The Stranger, but it is now a very obscure film and to the best of my knowledge, No Exit remains unfilmed). That is why Paolo Sorrentino’s Youth is unique and marvelous. The film looks beautiful …
Justin Kurzel’s (The Snowtown Murders) grand, brilliant, magnificent adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth (aka “The Scottish Play) opens with a child, a dead child, Macbeth (Michael Fassbender) and Lady Macbeth’s (Marion Cotillard) preadolescent son. Wracked by silent grief and unspoken despair, Macbeth places …
It’s not uncommon to see a documentary made about a legendary filmmaker or author or major historical figure. It is, however, uncommon to see a documentary made about a book. Granted this book, Hitchcock/Truffaut, was written by legendary filmmaker François Truffaut and was the culmination of the…