Release: Friday, November 9, 2018 (limited) →Netflix Written by: Joel Coen; Ethan Coen Directed by: Ethan Coen; Joel Coen For a fleeting moment The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, the new Coen brothers film -- a big shiny red apple waiting to be plucked from the ever-growing Netflix tree -- was also available for more traditional consumption in theaters. But who … Continue reading The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
#crazy
Free Solo
Release: Friday, September 28, 2018 →Theater Directed by: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi; Jimmy Chin Alex Honnold is a professional rock climber who occupies a very obscure niche within the rock climbing community. As a free soloist responsible for some of the world's most death-defying ascents sans a rope and any protective gear, he is most alive when climbing … Continue reading Free Solo
First Man
Release: Friday, October 12, 2018 →IMAX Written by: Josh Singer Directed by: Damien Chazelle While First Man is only a small step into a different genre for director Damien Chazelle, the way he tells the story of the Moon landing may well represent a giant leap for fans of his previous, more emotionally-driven work. The historical reenactment is uncharted … Continue reading First Man
BlacKkKlansman
Release: Friday, August 10, 2018 →Theater Written by: Spike Lee; Charlie Wachtel; David Rabinowitz; Kevin Willmott Directed by: Spike Lee BlacKkKlansman is one wild ride. Loosely based upon the 2014 memoir of the same name (minus that little 'k' that writer/director Spike Lee threw in there), it recounts the experiences of an undercover black police officer in the … Continue reading BlacKkKlansman
Three Identical Strangers
Release: Friday, June 29, 2018 (limited) →Theater Directed by: Tim Wardle Significant spoilers follow. Documentarian Tim Wardle stunned the Sundance crowd earlier this year when he premiered Three Identical Strangers, the remarkable true story of a set of triplets separated at birth who by sheer chance were reunited at the age of 19. Call it one of … Continue reading Three Identical Strangers
Unsane
Release: Friday, March 23, 2018 →Theater Written by: Jonathan Bernstein; James Greer Directed by: Steven Soderbergh Steven Soderbergh is to date the most recognizable filmmaker to have publicly touted the virtues of making movies using your own smartphone. We aren't talking Instagram videos of course, but full-length feature films. In this case, a gritty horror film about a … Continue reading Unsane
What Happened to Monday (Seven Sisters)
Release: Friday, August 18, 2017 (Netflix) →Netflix Written by: Max Botkin; Kerry Williamson Directed by: Tommy Wirkola In the context of Norwegian filmmaker Tommy Wirkola's dystopian crime thriller What Happened to Monday -- a.k.a. Seven Sisters -- China's methods of dealing with an extraordinary overpopulation crisis would be no less controversial but they would also no longer be the exception; rather, the opposite. … Continue reading What Happened to Monday (Seven Sisters)
The Fate of the Furious
Release: Friday, April 14, 2017 [Theater] Written by: Chris Morgan Directed by: F. Gary Gray Sometimes I find myself asking how we have managed to get to the point where women and children are being threatened by cyber terrorists in a franchise built around car racing. I find myself wondering if things have gotten a little too out-of-hand. … Continue reading The Fate of the Furious
Train to Busan
Release: Friday, July 22, 2016 (limited) [Netflix] Written by: Yeon Sang-ho Directed by: Yeon Sang-ho Train to Busan is a breathless and brutal South Korean zombie flick that broke a number of records last year, becoming the first Korean feature to breach the $1 million mark at the Singaporean box office. Over the past several months it has taken the … Continue reading Train to Busan
March Blindspot: Trainspotting (1996)
Release: Friday, August 9, 1996 [YouTube] Written by: John Hodge Directed by: Danny Boyle One of the things I had presumed about Danny Boyle's iconic drug drama Trainspotting was that it was really bleak, and it was that way from start to finish. Don't get me wrong -- this film is not happy, but I wasn't expecting so much compassion. … Continue reading March Blindspot: Trainspotting (1996)