For all the world-building and king-making done here, Marvel’s Mayflower voyage into cinematic domination is really just a pretty good movie. And much of that is due to the strength of Downey Jr., who makes the deadlifting of a movie star look easy. Everything else about it is engaging and well-done enough, um—serviceable, that’s the…
Todd Wofford
Smartass billionaire Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) gets taken hostage by ISIS-type group, becomes titular superhero in order to escape. Rollicking action saga boots up the MCU, but also does just dandy on its lonesome. RDJ remakes the lead character in his own image, and keeps it that way for about twenty more movies. Director…
Quentin Tarantino’s masterpiece bears the off-kilter zeal of a crazed saucier–the kind of Creole kitchen-dweller who uses two teaspoons of Marsala for the recipe, then drinks the rest straight from the bottle. From Akira Kurosawa to Arthur Penn, from Buddy Holly’s rock nerdery to James Dean’s leather-jacket cool—just about any pertinent pop culture reference gets…
Rock history is replete with well-intentioned superstars who chose to people their inner circle with blood-sucking sycophants. Elvis had his Memphis Mafia, a nasty little cadre of shitkickers who strip-mined Presley’s well-known generosity and contributed heavily to his emotional and physical disintegration. And though possessed of a greater sense of savvy, the Beatles were no less vulnerable…
Avengers: Infinity War functions as a kind of cinematic clothesline, with characters and subplots from the previous eighteen Marvel movies draped across it. The fact that everything hangs together so well without sagging makes for an enormous achievement and a testament to the meticulous attention of the writers and directors. This film strikes a perfect balance…
Just about everything hits in Peter Jackson’s inaugural nerd derby: Sir Ian gives gravitas to Gandalf, few people can pull off mannered menace like Sir Christopher Lee, and Sean Bean gets to practice playing Ned Stark in more ways than one. The sweeping shots of Kiwi vistas make like cinematic post cards. Lone quibble: Am…
Vertigo is an odd, elliptical masterpiece that manages to somehow embody Alfred Hitchcock’s cinematic eccentricities and yet stand apart from the rest of his sprawling filmography. It covers his familiar terrain of obsession and death (and his fetish for platinum blondes with icy dispositions) but is defined and distinguished by a melancholic fog that hangs densely…
No sense in dancing around it: This movie sucks deep-fried donkeys. The cinematography makes the Zapruder film look like Trip to Bountiful. The monotonic soundtrack conjures the image of a twitching Pomeranian in fitful sleep atop a Casio keyboard. The performances, the editing, and the writing—they all land in the weeds, too. Even the clouds…
It’s full D&D porn, as Big Bad Sauron brings his Orcs, Men, and mammoths to bear on Middle Earth. Jackson builds impeccable spectacle--the Battle of Pelennor Fields is relentlessly exciting, and the players match the technical perfection, especially Mortensen as the titular king. Unfortunately, the soufflé collapses in the epilogue, where we get endless Hobbit giggles and…
Or, The Empire Strikes Back in mail armor. Peter Jackson delivers the middle act of Tolkien’s Middle Earth saga with damn near perfect pitch: The Hobbiton flab of the first film is filched, leaving a lean narrative that’s both faster moving and more dramatically satisfying. The action set piece at Helm’s Deep stacks up to just…
