Reviews of the Bosch

Since its’ announcement I was skeptical about Frozen 2 . Not only because Disney used to be unique among animation studios in not producing theatrical sequels, but also because the story of Frozen was nicely wrapped up, the character and thematic arcs complete, and the world not quite alluring enough to warrant further exploration. And Frozen was just also such a great singular gem, the best movie from Disney Feature Animation of the 2010s, and a sequel ran the risk of diminishing that a tad, or worse falling into the traps of any number of Disney’s infamous direct-to-video follow-ups. Now having seen the film, the good news is that the former is untrue, that Frozen remains independent of its sequel or not, a remarkable work of animation and a spectacular piece of modern fairy tale storytelling. The bad news is Frozen II wouldn’t entirely be out of place next to The Lion King 2 or Aladdin 3 . No doubt the films’ defining attribute against that association is its animation, w

During the golden age of Hollywood musicals, Vincente Minnelli was that rare filmmaker who could put a personal stamp on the films he directed.  Minnelli films were garish and colourful, beautifully shot and elaborately choreographed to a degree that others of the era (save of course Singin’ in the Rain ) couldn’t attain. Two of his films won Oscars for Best Picture; Gigi also won him Best Director. The other one was really good. An American in Paris belongs to that class of old Hollywood musical that exudes a relentless charm in spite of everything that doesn’t quite hold up to scrutiny. It’s very simple story and largely one-dimensional characters don’t matter next to the enthusiasm poured into every image and lyric. Harmoniously bombastic yet elegant, it was inspired by the George Gershwin composition of the same name and given the basic storyline of a struggling American artist in Paris falling in love with the cultured young woman he doesn’t know is engaged to his friend. Gen

There’s been a lot of stupid discourse surrounding Martin Scorsese lately because so many people are upset or delighted that he’s not too keen on Marvel movies, and it’s all so tiresome and unimportant. He hasn’t done much to discourage this obnoxious debate of course, but its’ even more annoying seeing industry professionals, big name actors and directors criticizing the guy (none worse than the Russo Brothers ) for daring to voice an unpopular opinion on the most popular movies on the planet. And it’s distracting from why we should be talking about Scorsese right now –his new movie that is one of his most ambitious in a career not wanting for risky endeavours. A gangster epic that reteams him with Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci for the first time in twenty-four years and reaffirms why he’s one of our most revered filmmakers. Of course The Irishman , based on the book I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt, has actually been a passion project of De Niro’s for about fifteen y

Few figures in the world of entertainment are as widely beloved in the way that Fred Rogers is. And it seems that in recent times of such hate and division his simple philosophies on love, kindness, and empathy as well as his unique way of teaching them have had a welcome renaissance. Only last year, we had the terrific documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor , and now Can You Ever Forgive Me ’s Marielle Heller has brought the late childrens’ host back to life again for A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood , a very interesting film which casts Mr. Rogers with another universally beloved popular icon, Tom Hanks, thus assuring a movie of the utmost sweetness. The film is not a biopic, in fact it’s only loosely based on a true story, taking the 1998 Esquire article “Can You Say …Hero?” by Tom Junod and expanding it into a semi-fictional narrative of a journalist here dubbed Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys) interviewing Mr. Rogers at a particularly trying time in his personal life when he’s d

In April, the first trailer dropped for Sonic the Hedgehog , an upcoming family comedy based on the long-running SEGA video game franchise. Immediately, it was a sensation for its bizarre and off-putting rendering of the title character. Following the creative pattern in Hollywood recently of taking a hyper-realistic approach to media properties ill-suited for it, Sonic bore little resemblance to the game character fans loved, with a dogs’ nose, white fur at the appendages in place of gloves, and those human teeth the internet couldn’t get enough of. There was enough of an outcry that Paramount felt obliged to put the film on hold so they could go back and completely reanimate the character. The second trailer sporting the redesigned Sonic (so close to the classic look it might as well be from one of the games) released just this month to acclaim from those very fans who’d earlier decried it. And the rest of us couldn’t care less. This should not have happened. And the fact that

Charlie’s Angels as a media franchise never quite outgrew its’ distinctly 1970s “spies, but sexy women” gimmick, even once the idea of women working in espionage became no longer a subversive storytelling tool but a welcome reality. But of course the very fact that it is a prevailing media property is a bit bizarre. The show enjoyed a resurgence in the early 2000s at the time when Hollywood was mining 60s and 70s television for its movie ideas (pandering to the nostalgia of Gen-Xers as they now do for millennials) with a Charlie’s Angels movie flat on the heels of the infamous Avengers and Wild Wild West attempts. Popular enough to spawn a sequel though ( and inspire a Canadian cartoon many of my peers will remember ), it was one of the more successful classic TV remakes of its era. But unlike the Mission Impossible series, which has managed to endure and evolve to the point it no longer is tied to or even resembles its source, Charlie’s Angels hasn’t. And Elizabeth Banks’ new

The two great moments in Last Christmas occur near the beginning and the middle of the movie. They are respectively the appearance of Patti LuPone in the garish Christmas shop that forms one of the films’ major settings and Blackadder’s Christmas Carol playing on T.V. while Emma Thompson sleeps on the couch. These have nothing to do with the actual plot of Last Christmas , but that’s part of why I love them. Delightful surprises that remind me of things I like are a rarity in this film. Last Christmas is a movie that does no favours to those who would defend the subgenre of holiday rom-coms as more than glorified cable movie tripe. It’s not easy I’ll grant, given the bad heavily outweighs the good as far as these are concerned, but there are enough heartwarming Christmas rom-coms like Love, Actually and The Holiday , to as far back as The Shop Around the Corner , The Bishop’s Wife , and even Christmas in Connecticut , to prove the genre has legs. Last Christmas trips over i

I don’t know much about cars, but even I know Ford is largely considered a joke. And granted, in spite of its title, Ford v. Ferrari knows that. It takes a lot of pot shots at the Ford Motor Company, both in the blandness, predictability, and lack of ambition in their cars, as well as the greed and stubbornness of their leadership, personified by a nasty Tracy Letts and a vindictive Josh Lucas. That’s not exactly unusual though in a film that is positing them, and by extent America, as an underdog. Oh, Christian Bale may be relentlessly mocking their capabilities of creating a race car now, but by the end of the movie they’ll have won the Le Mans 24 hour international race. We’ve been through this before. But the curious thing about James Mangold’s movie about the creation of the Ford GT40, the lead-up to and ultimate victory at the aforementioned race, is that it seems to have no loyalty to Ford whatsoever. Rather it’s about characters –Ken Miles specifically: the crusty and c

Biopics are really a dime a dozen lately. For the last decade, the dawn of Oscar-bait season has been marked by movies if not directly about a specific figure, then telling a true story. It can get tiresome and tedious, as was the case with the recent Judy –to say nothing of films like Tolkien , Green Book , On the Basis of Sex , Bohemian Rhapsody , Darkest Hour , Sully , Snowden , The Theory of Everything , and The Imitation Game . But every year there are a few that break through the mold of mediocrity on the merits of a performance or style –and Harriet is thankfully marginally one of them. Almost the singular thing that saves Kasi Lemmons’ retelling of the extraordinary life story of Harriet Tubman is the performance of Cynthia Erivo in the title role. The British theatre actress and singer who broke onto the movie scene last year in Bad Times at the El Royale (in the scene-stealing role of that ensemble movie) and Widows is a force of nature in this film: powerful and p