Back in 2012, during awards season, it felt like everyone was buzzing about The Artist. At the Academy Awards, the film garnered 10 nominations and walked away with 5 wins (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Costume Design, and Best Musical Score.) Yet, in 2023, no one ever talksContinue Reading
If a film carries the title Vengeance, one would predictably expect an action movie. Or a revenge picture. But one probably wouldn’t expect first-time writer/director B.J. Novak’s crime story that humorously attempts to get to the root of the increasing division between Americans in today’s self-obsessed society. Novak also starsContinue Reading
Owen Wilson plays Carl Nargle, a soft-spoken, Bob Ross-type painter, who hosts a painting show on a Vermont PBS station. For 22 seasons, he’s been painting and whispering his way to local fame if not fortune. Carl lives in a customized 1970s van called “Vantastic” and wears his hair andContinue Reading
“Inspired by true events,” claims the advertising campaign for Cocaine Bear, a movie about a bear that ingests cocaine and goes on a murder spree through a national park in Georgia. Yes, there really was a bear that came across some cocaine dumped from an airplane. Yes, it ate some.Continue Reading
While watching Last Action Hero, I couldn’t help but be reminded of Demolition Man. Both featured big action stars (Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, respectively.) Both films came out in 1993 when big-budget action hero films were starting to slip at the box office. Both take a satirical look atContinue Reading
I’ve regularly made fun of Nicolas Cage for never meeting a script he didn’t like. Or, more likely, a paycheck. Mr. Cage has been in 20 films in the last five years, including this month’s The Old Way. Even though he’s won an Academy Award, he’s sometimes viewed as aContinue Reading
I first remember hearing about Vampire’s Kiss from a friend of mine in the late 80s. She had a dubbed VHS copy of it on a shelf in her parents’ house. She said it was some romantic comedy and her dad thought it was awful. From that day forward untilContinue Reading