Redbox Review: The Boy Next Door

With Redbox Review it is my hope to answer a simple question, to wit: having decided not to see a particular movie in the theater, is it worth the $1.59 to rent that movie from your local Redbox? 

Watching the Jennifer Lopez vehicle The Boy Next Door, I am reminded of a line from Othello, delivered in the immediate aftermath of Othello’s murder of his wife in a state of demented jealousy. Upon realizing that he has been Iago’s dupe, he says to the assembled company “when you shall these unlucky deeds relate, speak of me as I am…one that loved not wisely but too well.”

Soul Food; Netflix's Chef's Table

Netflix’s new limited series Chef’s Table demonstrates the painful dichotomy that lies at the root of the search for perfection—and the astonishing demand that high level food places on those who create it.

Is Cameron Crowe good at making movies?

Cameron Crowe’s new movie Aloha comes out today, and if you paid any attention at all to the movie related content of the Sony hacks you’ll know that studio executives view the film as something of a dumpster fire.

Sadly this is not a total aberration. It has been four years since Crowe brought us We Bought a Zoo, the tale of one man’s inconceivably ill advised plan to purchase a house with a zoo in the backyard in the wake of his wife’s death. While the film made $120 million, on a budget of $50 million, it is hard to argue that it is anything other than risible. At best it is an argument in favor of the old adage that you shouldn’t make a major purchase for at least a year after a major life change (getting sober, losing a spouse, etc.), and at worst it is precisely the kind of schlocky pap that makes people fear for the future of films that feature characters not spawned from the pages of Marvel or D.C.

TV Review: Grace & Frankie

There is a moment in the fourth episode of the new Netflix original series Grace & Frankie that perfectly reflects the show’s thesis. Martin Sheen’s character, Robert, who has left his wife of forty years to marry his law partner Sol, played by Sam Waterson, is attending his first public event since coming out, and begins to realize that the process is more complicated than simply appearing in public with Sol. “I’m never not going to be coming out, am I,” Robert asks a friend.

The Post-Apocalypse Top Ten

Mad Mad: Fury Road is, by far, the best film currently in the theater. It is an experience unlike any other you are likely to have at the movies. As wild and uproarious a celebration of the power of women as it is an indictment of the patriarchy that, in the words of Imperator Furiosa “broke the world.”

Set in a hellish desert ruled by a cultish strong man, it is the most recent example of the cinematic genre that was savaged by Tomorrowland’s bright insistence on optimism—the post-apocalyptic picture. But what are the best examples of this genre? My goal today is to outline my own person post-apocalyptic top ten.

Redbox Review: St. Vincent

With Redbox Review it is my hope to answer a simple question, to wit: having decided not to see a particular movie in the theater, is it worth the $1.50 to rent that movie from your local Redbox?

St. Vincent is Theodore Melfi’s first feature length film since 1999. In the interim he has resided mostly in the world of shorts. St. Vincent has the feel of a short film. The layout is simple. A bitter, broken old man befriends a young boy. Through that relationship the man is revealed to be something more than a solitary crank.

Movie Review: Tomorrowland

Disneys’s Tomorrowland announces its intentions from the jump. As the Disney theme swells and we expect to see Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, we instead see the skyline of the film’s titular genius enclave. Instead of a shooting star that crests the highest tower of the castle we see a figure flying a jetpack. Much has already been written about this film has hinged on its deliberate and explicit comparison to its forward looking contemporaries, films like Fury Road, which portray the future as wasteland, and while it is true that this is a film deeply (perhaps hopelessly) invested in a more whimsically optimistic future, it is as much a (pointed) meditation on the future of Disney as it is on the future of the Earth.