This past week, I was stoked to join my critic peers as a guest on the CinemaJaw podcast, hosted by fellow Chicago Indie Critic members Matt Kubinski and Ryan Jagiello. This was my fourth appearance on their show. CinemaJaw remains one of the best and entertaining movie podcasts in this or any city. Give their work a like and a follow!
Read MoreOur former schlub begins punching, shooting, stabbing, plotting, huffing, and puffing through an escalating network of Russian mobsters. Bob Odenkirk puts his 53-year-old self through two years of training in the hands to become a polo-shirted wraith of wanton violence. In between fights, Odenkirk’s graveled voice and line delivery pushes the severity of his morals and mindset to match his fists and trigger finger. He’s simply awesome and owns this movie.
Read Moreby Lafronda Stumn
As busy I get from time to time, I find that I can't see every movie under the sun, leaving my friends and colleagues to fill in the blanks for me. As poetically as I think I wax about movies on this website as a wannabe critic, there are other experts out there. Sometimes, it inspires me to see the movie too and get back to being my circle's go-to movie guy. Sometimes, they save me $9 and you 800+ words of blathering. In a new review series, I'm opening my site to friend submissions for guest movie reviews.
Read MoreGive the determined and reinvigorated 300 and Watchmen director four-hours, extra millions, and full creative control and you get this kind of beefy result. Zack Snyder’s Justice League builds the saga both the audiences and characters deserved four years ago. Nearly every artistic and technical layer moves with a different beat and flourish. Even with the problematic precedent this whole odyssey set into motion from a fan outrage/support standpoint, this new result is a positive testament to what this second attempt means for and earns both the creators and the consumers.
Read Moreby Lafronda Stumn
As busy I get from time to time, I find that I can't see every movie under the sun, leaving my friends and colleagues to fill in the blanks for me. As poetically as I think I wax about movies on this website as a wannabe critic, there are other experts out there. Sometimes, it inspires me to see the movie too and get back to being my circle's go-to movie guy. Sometimes, they save me $9 and you 800+ words of blathering. In a new review series, I'm opening my site to friend submissions for guest movie reviews.
Read MoreCherry feels like the cinematic embodiment of the expression “throw everything at the wall to see if it sticks.” The Collins Dictionary defines that to mean saying something “that is not believable but hoping that what is said will be acceptable as truth.” For the movie, it’s about the performers and filmmakers piling on every trope and trick they can to try and get noticed for praise. To that end, Cherry is trying way, way too hard.
Read MoreThe medium of movies fits the swelling urge to be big and loud. They are sensory explosions we love, but that only goes so far in that endless style vs. substance debate. No matter the noise or spectacle, in this critic’s opinion, story and character are what secure success the most. The crowdfunded Batman: Dying is Easy is precisely that example. The short film from Sean and Aaron Schoenke of Bat in the Sun Productions nails its characters without overplaying spectacle. That’s likely a lecture that we may very well revisit this very week with a certain hotly anticipated director’s cut fanning all the fanboy flames in sight.
Read Moreby Lafronda Stumn
As busy I get from time to time, I find that I can't see every movie under the sun, leaving my friends and colleagues to fill in the blanks for me. As poetically as I think I wax about movies on this website as a wannabe critic, there are other experts out there. Sometimes, it inspires me to see the movie too and get back to being my circle's go-to movie guy. Sometimes, they save me $9 and you 800+ words of blathering. In a new review series, I'm opening my site to friend submissions for guest movie reviews.
Read MoreThe edge of the comedic machete harvesting all the low-hanging fruit planted by the six writers sharing story and screenwriter credit on this sequel is regrettably dulled from the R-rated coarseness of 1988 and its different time and temperament. But zingers still zing, thanks to the likable performers and characters. When they’re having fun, we’re having fun. To call back again to Jackie Wilson, the silly glee of this movie evokes the refrained lyric of “Oh what a feeling to be loved!” That’s all this movie is trying to do and that’s just fine.
Read MoreBut the “lies” work because memorable stories dazzle and impress eyes and hearts at the same time. Nestled in a completely foreign realm of magic and myth, the real-life parallels woven into the high fantasy of Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon couldn’t ring louder or truer if it stole every bell in the record-holding Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin. The movie hits the premium tier of Disney+ on March 5th.
Read MoreWhen you read the source material coming from David Kushner’s 2014 long-form piece from Rolling Stone and then watch the movie, the character traits and tonal choices just don’t fit. Silk Road has an astounding and blistering story to tell that seems mishandled by those two filmmaker tools for dramatic effect. We too easily see the chopped scars from a machete and the lift of a weakly deflated Thanksgiving Day parade balloon from something that could have been as sharp and heady as The Social Network.
Read Moreby Lafronda Stumn
As busy I get from time to time, I find that I can't see every movie under the sun, leaving my friends and colleagues to fill in the blanks for me. As poetically as I think I wax about movies on this website as a wannabe critic, there are other experts out there. Sometimes, it inspires me to see the movie too and get back to being my circle's go-to movie guy. Sometimes, they save me $9 and you 800+ words of blathering. In a new review series, I'm opening my site to friend submissions for guest movie reviews.
Read More
