Reviews of the Bosch

Douglas Sirk’s 1959 adaptation of Fannie Hurst’s novel Imitation of Life  is one of those movies that endeavours to be socially conscious in a radical way but without going far enough in its pursuits to make any kind of a radical statement. It is a movie that came in the early years of the Civil Rights Movement with a genuine interest in speaking to that movement on themes of race and wealth, but is coming at it from a place of extreme whiteness (whether from the studio apparatus or the specific producers), and as such a certain ignorance of the themes it wishes to express. But then, it’s clearly a movie aimed at white audiences more than black, an early entry in the “teaching white people not to be racist” genre -which to it’s credit was at one time a useful one. At a time when segregation was still the way of life in many U.S. states, this was a movie that openly denounced it. While miscegenation was still a taboo in parts of the country and Loving vs. Virginia was still a decade...

They Cloned Tyrone  never takes advantage of it’s truly inspired title. Never is it quoted in the movie, no main character is even named Tyrone -it just seems a wasted opportunity. But what is reflected by it is the tone, which does largely live up to its attitude and eccentric implications. And that’s probably the most important thing. They Cloned Tyrone  was a Black List script from 2019 by Tony Rettenmaier and Juel Taylor, and I don’t think it was a coincidence the movie was thought up within that proximity to Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You  and to a lesser extent Jordan Peele’s first two films. Because the movie as it ultimately turned out is in that same vein of racially charged social satires containing sci-fi elements and a dark edge. The added ingredient to set this film apart though is the pronounced aesthetics and language of Blacksploitation, which is not a bad context for such subjects and themes given the history of that momentary subgenre’s commitment to ...

I remember in a high school history class covering the Cold War a teacher  explaining that enough advanced nuclear weapons now exist to decimate the world three times over. A frightful thing to be told at fifteen, though necessarily sobering. The reality of the atom bomb is something we have grown to live with, but when reminded of its power, it is a chilling thing to consider that it was ever developed, ever used to rain down death and destruction on a level unimaginable. And yet, when Christopher Nolan illustrates the nuclear blast of the Trinity Test, the ensuing mushroom cloud is as much a thing of intense majesty as horror. Through the eyes of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) it is the successful culmination of years of research and disciplined scientific development, as well as the most awesome destructive force on earth. At that moment, there’s no going back, no putting the genii back in the lamp. And the famous line rings with a dull, pronounced gravity: “I am become ...

Ever since it was announced that Greta Gerwig was going to be making a live-action Barbie  movie, the big question was why? Why step into the corporate I.P. factory after the likes of Lady Bird  and Little Women  -and why this I.P. in particular, one that is ubiquitous but also kind of bland and dated. Barbie is a concept more than a character, more than even a toy. Yet that very fact gives an idea as to why it might be an appealing project for Gerwig as well as her husband/co-writer Noah Baumbach. The question shouldn’t have been why would Gerwig make a Barbie  movie, but how? It’s very fitting that Gerwig’s vision of Barbie  features a character dubbed ‘Weird Barbie’ (played by Kate McKinnon) because her movie is a very weird Barbie  that doesn’t go in any of the directions you might expect of the children’s toy franchise as it has existed up to this point. Taking a cue perhaps from The Lego Movie , it casts the Barbie World in a self-aware context -exist...

Ten years ago it seemed like Futurama  was definitively done. It had been canceled for the second time after diminishing returns on Comedy Central, and in its seventh and final season, that dip in quality that had come to The Simpsons  a decade or so prior was starting to appear. “The Bots and the Bees” and “Assie Come Home” are not classics (the latter in fact a recycling of the much better “Bendin’ in the Wind”. But it ended on a strong note -not just the exceptional finale “Meanwhile”, but the last handful of episodes leading up to it I thought were pretty great too. Futurama had had a couple finales before, but this especially felt conclusive. The book was closed on one of the great animated series. But nothing is dead permanently in the age of streaming.  And if Animaniacs could come  back for a few years on Hulu, so too could Futurama . I was skeptical  when it was announced a new season was being produced. Then I felt a little hopeful to hear the origina...

When I think of Wong Kar-wai, I think of nighttime and neon lights, I think of the image of lonely people sitting in cafes or bars as the world passes behind them, mere flashes of movement; I think of love and quiet, sombre heartbreak, the sensuality that exists between people but is rarely fully or openly expressed. Mostly I think of the mood of melancholy, yet how this can be beautiful, colourful, inspiring even. A feeling of gloominess at the complexity of messy human relationships, though tinged with an unmitigated joy in the sensation of that feeling. And a warmth, generated by light and colour, that cuts through to the solitude of our very soul. This isn’t a broadly definitive quality of Wong’s body of work -certainly it isn’t so much true of his martial arts films Ashes of Time  and The Grandmaster. But those most affectionate movies on my memory: Chungking Express , Fallen Angels , Happy Together , 2046 , of course  In the Mood for Love , and even My Blueberry Nig...