The Archive Archives

The Third Man (1949)::rating::5::rating::5::rating::5

I n the immediate aftermath of World War II, Vienna stood as a nexus where soot-stained cynicism met and mingled with nefarious opportunity. Like most of Europe, Austria struggled to…

A Star is Born (2018)::rating::4

T he premise of A Star is Born dates all the way back to the first decade of talking pictures. Its remaking has been a generational affair, with Judy Garland and…

Venom (2018)::rating::1.5

V enom somehow manages to be frenetic and lifeless at the same time, like a corpse with current running through it. It writhes and twitches protractedly before turning into a smoldering,…

Smallfoot (2018)::rating::3

T o borrow a baseball metaphor, most modern animated movies aim to send the ball to one of two spots in the stadium. Pixar goes Babe Ruth and points its…

Night School (2018)::rating::1.5

If it had been made in the 80s, Night School could’ve been one of those minor classics people still drunkenly quote at parties. I picture a John Candy/Matthew Broderick dynamic,…

A Simple Favor (2018)::rating::3

A Simple Favor surgically slices into a subject that’s ripe and ready for satire: The modern mommy. It builds a labyrinthine murder mystery within the suburban topography of playdates and…

The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018)::rating::2.5

An unbalanced alchemy of diluted Harry Potter and Tim Burton’s fetish for the morbidly adorable, The House with a Clock in Its Walls never manages to be as clever and cuddly as…

Crazy Rich Asians (2018)::rating::3.5

Crazy Rich Asians is pure cotton candy—two hours of fluffy entertainment built on an ironically cynical question: Could a true fairy tale still exist in the age of social media saturation…

The Archive

Boogie Nights (1997)::rating::4

Alternately cheery and dreary, Paul Thomas Anderson’s porn de force shines a blacklight on the adult film industry, and its awkward transition into the era of VHS and HIV. Mark Wahlberg—sporting…