There's no doubt that the doll in Annabelle: Creation is a truly terrible toy. She's not some misunderstood waif, playing out her own bad decisions. She's not a tortured antihero taking moral shortcuts to a worthy end. The doll is... Read more
There's no doubt that the doll in Annabelle: Creation is a truly terrible toy. She's not some misunderstood waif, playing out her own bad decisions. She's not a tortured antihero taking moral shortcuts to a worthy end. The doll is... Read more
The wind howls. A door creaks. And then in the darkness—just out of the corner of your eye—you see something move. Was it a bit of paper, picked up by a draft? The family cat? Or was it … something else? Gary Dauberman knows how to bring such scenes to terrifying life. The screenwriter seems to specialize in horror scripts, particularly those involving the supernatural. The writer behind 2014’s hit horror flick Annabelle has been busy lately: He’s crafting a... Read more
We need rules. If we loved each other perfectly, we'd have no use for laws and courts and prisons. But our better angels are tethered to unseemly demons of greed and lust, rage and fear. And so from the time... Read more
A calendar tells us that summer runs from June 21 to September 21. Most of us ignore that calendar and kinda pencil summer in between Memorial Day and Labor Day. But if you're in the movie biz, summer runs from... Read more
I'm still processing the death of Chester Bennington, lead singer of Linkin Park. Linkin Park was a part of our household when the band was the biggest thing around. My son was a fan, and so I heard Chester's voice—sometimes... Read more
In David Lowery's excellent, intimate A Ghost Story (increasing its theatrical run this week), the ghost (Casey Affleck) is simply known as C. Killed in a car crash, C spends his days and nights and years in his haunted house,... Read more
So, there’s only so much you can learn from a movie trailer. They’re advertisements, after all. They’re supposed to get you excited about a movie. That said, I got goosebumps watching the trailer for A Wrinkle in Time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4U3TeY2wtM It looks like the Disney movie has a great cast. It’s being directed by Ava DuVernay, who also directed Selma, one of my favorite pics from 2014. Moreover, A Wrinkle in Time is one of my favorite childhood books, and only later did I learn... Read more
Jesus told us to give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, give to God what is God’s. In War for the Planet of the Apes, we get a story concerned with both: Caesar, the intelligent, charismatic chimpanzee leader of a troop... Read more
TV has never been better, no question. The television landscape is so saturated with prestige shows right now that it’s turned into a veritable bog of quality—capable of sucking us in and forcing us to binge watch for weeks at a time. Obviously, with all that television excellence bouncing around the telly, a few worthy shows are going to get snubbed around Emmy time. Only a few programs will find that secret elixir that’ll put them in the running for... Read more
Years from now—nay, decades—film historians will look back at 2017, rub their graying goatees, adjust their monocles and say, “Man, what was up with all those sequels? Who in their right mind would think anyone needed another Transformer movie?” Their next thought would surely be, “But those superhero movies were sure awesome.” And they’d be right. We’re unquestionably living in the golden age of cinematic superheroes, this year’s been the 24-karat cherry on top. We’ve yet to see Disney/Marvel’s Thor:... Read more
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