Summer of Soul (2021)::rating::4.5::rating::4.5::rating::4.5

T he Harlem Cultural Festival was a massive musical happening, spread over six weeks of 1969's sweltering summer. Tens of thousands concert-goers crammed into Harlem's Mount Morris Park to hear an all-star lineup of Black musicians, but they ended up with even more than that: This marked a socio-political crossroads, when Black music took on…

ByTodd WoffordMarch 7, 20220Comments

The Latest

The Batman (2022)::rating::3.5

M att Reeves' The Batman is a sweeping, three-hour elegy on just how miserable it is to be Batman. For much of the film, Robert Pattinson's Dark Knight looks on the verge of a nervous breakdown: Black eye makeup streaks his dour face; strands of unkempt hair drape downward in all directions, as if Bruce Wayne just…

ByTodd WoffordMarch 4, 20220Comments

Greatest The Latest

Drive My Car (2021)::rating::5

F or much of Drive My Car, Misaki (Tōko Miura) chauffeurs Yusuke (Hidetoshi Nishikima) to and from his job as a theater director. He listens to cassettes of his late wife narrating Chekov's Uncle Vanya, and an eerie tranquility emanates from her voice. Misaki drives in silence, with a look of passive melancholia frozen on her…

ByTodd WoffordFebruary 28, 20220Comments

The Archive

House of Gucci (2021)::rating::2.5

A fter 160 minutes of House of Gucci, I can confidently say I have no idea what the hell I just watched. Is this a gloriously trashy piece of pop art--the Borgias of Melrose Place? Or, are we watching a fumbling stab at legitimate Oscar bait, wherein people get boozy and holler at each other, while mascara…

ByTodd WoffordFebruary 25, 20220Comments

The Latest

Encanto (2021)::rating::4.5

A s a parent to a toddler, I can now assess the landscape of children's movies with a much higher degree of confidence. My verdict: From a story standpoint, most animated fare is designed to be disposable at best, and shamelessly lazy at worst. The savvier filmmakers will distract you with millions of colors over…

ByTodd WoffordFebruary 24, 20220Comments

Podcast The Archive

City of Angels (1998)::rating::2.5

C ity of Angels is one of the strangest romantic films to emerge from the 90s. As a date movie, it's ponderous and wild-eyed to the point of being deliriously goofy. Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan, two of the era's biggest stars, don't work at all as a supernatural couple. Finally, the film capitalizes on the…

ByTodd WoffordFebruary 23, 20220Comments

The Archive

Superbad (2007)::rating::4

T een movies centered around graduation are always bittersweet affairs. Look beneath the flow of booze and morally flimsy sexcapades, and you'll find an undercurrent of yearning, regret, and deep anxiety. There's a strange proto-nostalgia, as pseudo-adults desperately try and cup the sand as it slinks down the hourglass. Few films have ever bottled that…

ByTodd WoffordFebruary 18, 20220Comments

The Latest

West Side Story (2021)::rating::4.5

A s a lifelong Spielberg aficionado, I'm honestly a little shocked it's taken him this long to tackle a musical. His movies have always relied on elaborate, ambitious shots that are both sweepingly cinematic and mathematically precise expressions of visual lyricism. And that's to say nothing of John Williams' booming motifs bursting from the speakers.…

ByTodd WoffordFebruary 17, 20220Comments

The Latest

Nightmare Alley (2021)::rating::3.5

W ithin Guillermo del Toro's ambitious, eccentric Nightmare Alley, two very different movies form an awkward coexistence: For much of its first half, we see the dark, sprawling topography of a Tim Burton fever dream, set during the Great Depression, where carny lifers try and carve out some meager slice of happiness. Gradually, that gnarled…

ByTodd WoffordFebruary 15, 20220Comments

Laughable The Latest

Infinite (2022)::rating::1

As is, Infinite is just loud, talky, and boring. Just like its titular logo, this movie seems to never end.

ByTodd WoffordFebruary 11, 20220Comments