Reviews of the Bosch

Dances With Wolves  is not really the movie I was expecting. By which I mean it’s a good deal better than its’ reputation, which isn’t so much that it’s bad as much as it is hollow -a well-meaning but empty act of reparation for Native American representation in film. It seems to be held up often as the quintessential “white saviour” movie, and yet I was shocked to find it only barely meets that definition. While it is certainly a white person’s story (he’s literally the title character) and every aspect of Lakota culture is illustrated through that lens, it is not the narrative of a white guy becoming leader of a non-white collective fighting his own on their behalf and ushering them into new prosperity as I was led to believe by its’ comparisons to movies that do do that. Indeed, Kevin Costner’s John Dunbar is a rather passive and observational character for significant stretches of his time among these people. Lawrence of Arabia , a movie less criticized for this, is way more of...

Wow… That was a shitshow! In some ways expected, some unexpected. Going into this years’ Oscars show, producer Will Packer stated his primary objective was that his Oscars be entertaining. I don’t know if that’s entirely what happened, but certainly it is going to be memorable -mostly due to one man who very quickly overshadowed the rest of the ceremony. Weird shit happens at the Oscars, it’s almost guaranteed, and yet that hasn’t effected the ratings it seems these last several years. And of course it’s because of ABC and the Academy’s obsession with ratings that resulted in a lot of the very worst material of this Oscars show. Like every year, there were scattered wonderful moments, there were a few nice, moving speeches, but they didn’t come close to making up for what came between them. Even the awards themselves were without any major upsets, with the possible exception of Kenneth Branagh taking home Best Original Screenplay for Belfast . And so there was nothing to distract from ...

Whatever happened to Adrian Lyne? Back in the 80s and 90s he was a pretty big deal, essentially coming to define the erotic thriller genre in American cinema through movies like 9 ½  Weeks  and especially Fatal Attraction . But after his 2002 film Unfaithful , he disappeared for two decades, and has only just now resurfaced with a new movie released to Amazon Prime based on the Patricia Highsmith novel Deep Water . It was exciting to anticipate this movie, so few filmmakers have that kind of a comeback after so long. Terrence Malick did it! But where his The Thin Red Line  was consistent and progressive from what had come before, Lyne’s new movie feels tired, unsure of itself, and uncertain how to respond to a cinematic landscape in which the erotic thriller no longer exists. Maybe it’s in response to that status quo that the film isn’t ultimately terribly erotic, as much as it is premised on sexual frustration. Sensual imagery is kept to a minimum, sex itself only barely...

“What the caterpillar calls the end, the rest of the world calls a butterfly.” The quote is attributed to Lao Tzu. The figure referencing it is Yang (Justin H. Min), an android programmed to know it as part of a vast mosaic of Chinese history and culture he is meant to impart. And it comes about in a conversation that he has with Kyra (Jodie Turner-Smith), a mother-figure, friend, but also for all intents and purposes, his owner, curious about his thoughts on existence. She asks if he believes that and his pensiveness seems to take her aback. What she doesn’t know is he is much closer to that end as he envisions than she ever thought. The titular figure of After Yang , the transcendent sophomore feature from video essayist-turned filmmaker Kogonada, “dies” relatively early in -at the end of the opening credits in fact. In this world of the indeterminate future, he was a robot teenager bought by Kyra and Jake (Colin Farrell) to keep company for their adopted daughter Mika (Malea Emma Tj...

So here’s where I go off on the dumb changes to the Oscars ceremony this year, why they’re so bad and dumb however you slice it, and if there’s any chance for the Academy to salvage their integrity in light of this dumb dumb dumbness. I’ve written a lot about the Oscars even outside of my annual coverage of them, because I am compelled by them . I love them and I hate them and I’m endlessly fascinated by them. Most of all I can see what they’re capable of and I root for them to live up to that. It delights me when Parasite  wins Best Picture or a wider array of films on wildly different subjects are honoured by them. At the same time I yearn for them to grow, to reflect an inclusive Academy and film-going public, and to not always fall back on tired and tedious motions of nominating biopics that have no business being in the conversation. Warts and all, I am a fan of the Oscars, and right now the Oscars brand is at a turning point with regards to its’ future integrity. In case y...