For their 163rd episode, two leather jacket film critics, two un-helmeted dads, and two wild one teachers, Will Johnson and Don Shanahan, come together for a new release of the summer 2024 movie season. The guys rev themselves up to welcome back writer-director Jeff Nichols with The Bikeriders starring Austin Butler, Jodie Comer, and Tom Hardy. Neither of our hosts rides motorcycles, but they came to this movie with their own gassy exhausts and asphalt-rattling rumbling.
Read MoreAmid the ostentatious theatricality of actors making all kinds of noise in The Bikeriders, the other sound the film absolutely nails is the unmistakable deep bass rumble caused the asymmetrical arrangement of firing cylinders in Harley-Davidson engines. One by itself will get your attention. Five rolling together will rattle your windows. A dozen or more churning as a fleet becomes an aural maelstrom. Your selected reaction to that hellacious harmony will be your tinted gateway into Jeff Nichols’ petulant film.
Read MoreWith a minimalist style and unadorned simplicity to reflect on racial intolerance, Jeff Nichols crafts “Loving” as a reminiscence of history without the histrionics. Devoid of soapboxes, speechifying, and manufactured swells of forced emotion seen in far too many historical dramas, “Loving” cuts a different cloth, trading in Hollywood glamor for blue collar truthfulness. Nichols brilliantly lets the honesty and grace of Richard and Mildred Loving stand on their own without an unnecessary pedestal. Cite this film as proof that “tell it like it is” does not require bombastic noise and volume.
Read MoreI dare you to look into the painful eyes of the three ages of Chiron and their matching performers and not have your soul triple in weight. The arc in "Moonlight" from the innocence of the little boy to the uncomfortable vulnerability hiding underneath the muscles and gold fronts of the hardened resulting adult is arduously moving on multiple levels. Observing his difficulties forces you to absorb the conflict and inescapable trepidation that surrounds the shared character. Pressing his heart to your own makes for one of the most moving and rewarding film experiences this year.
Read MoreIn the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the adjective form of "special" can be defined as "held in particular esteem" and "readily distinguishable from others in the same category." For a film to earn that distinction it has to do more than have the word in its title, as is the case with the Jeff Nichols film "Midnight Special." It has to possess exemplary qualities to revere that enable it to stand out from its peers. As one of the most striking, imposing, and spell-binding original science fiction films in recent memory, "special" is fitting trademark for "Midnight Special."
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