Reviews of the Bosch

  The recent movie IF  from John Krasinski, about imaginary friends, features a noteworthy scene where the main character’s grandmother has a movie playing on TV fairly prominently. That movie is Harvey , a clear influence on Krasinski as probably the best-known classic Hollywood movie about an imaginary friend. There’s a reason for that -incidentally, it’s a much better movie than  IF . I’ve always heard of Harvey as this uniquely strange old movie about Jimmy Stewart having a giant rabbit as an imaginary friend. It seemed like the kind of concept that would be too off-puttingly odd for any male star of the era, let alone Stewart, who at the time was known as a fairly straight-laced leading man. But more than just doing this movie, Stewart had played the part on stage for one of the early runs of the play by Mary Chase that it is based on -one that has since gone on to be quite celebrated in its own right. He seemed to have been really endeared to the material -he even r...

It’s been almost ten years since George Miller and Charlize Theron introduced the world to one of the great enigmatic action heroines of modern times. Imperator Furiosa, the fearless and determined rogue at the heart of a mission to save abused young women in Mad Max: Fury Road , became that rare thing in modern cinema history: an iconic original character. And from the get-go, Miller intended on giving her her own movie, explaining her backstory while expanding further this mad apocalyptic world that he had reinterpreted so profoundly. It was unlike anything else that had been seen, even in his earlier Mad Max  movies, and it was the kind of world drenched in a propulsive high-adrenaline style that demanded more focus. Not to explain it necessarily, but to live in it. In his old age, Miller has become one of the movie world’s most radical visionaries. His visual palette on Fury Road  and the little-seen but brilliant Three Thousand Years of Longing is utterly mesmerizing and...

The creative partnership between Glen Powell and Richard Linklater is as exciting as it is underrated. Years before Powell was being hailed one of the hot new actors in Hollywood he appeared in a memorable supporting role in  Everybody Wants Some!!  (prior to this, as a teenager he had a small part in Fast Food Nation ). Post- Top Gun: Maverick  he made a small appearance in Apollo 10½ , and then it was announced he was co-writing and starring in Linklater’s next film. The pair clearly share a common artistic and intellectual sensibility, of a kind comparable to Linklater and his other great collaborator Ethan Hawke. And their film Hit Man  is really an ideal embodiment of that -funny and thoughtful as much as it is charming and sexy. I can’t think of a more sexually evocative movie that Linklater has made in fact. His Before trilogy is of course a pinnacle of cinematic romance, but it’s much more lush and tender than lustful and sensual as several scenes of Hit Ma...

For the past year or so, one of the predominant conversations in movie spaces has been about the state of superhero movies. It's no surprise. Superhero movies have been a supreme cultural touchstone for more than a decade now, the biggest, flashiest cinematic sensations that studios have been pouring the bulk of their money and resources into. And so we can't help but pay close attention to shifts in their successes and public perceptions, whether in ripples or waves. The superhero monoculture genre, by which I really just mean those multi-million dollar products stemming from the two giants Marvel and DC -the former controlled by Disney and Sony, the latter by Warner Bros, has indisputably taken a hit in recent years. To the point that one company (at least the non-Sony part) is scaling back considerably while the other is engaged in completely reinventing itself.  After seven years of releasing three to four new movies per year (not counting the anomaly that was 2020 of cour...

Ever since it was announced that Russell T. Davies would be coming back to run Doctor Who , the question was, would he live up to his prior accomplishments. His era is venerated by many Doctor Who  fans, especially in my age bracket, for not only revitalizing the show, but injecting it with an enormous amount of creativity, intrigue, pathos, and heart. There’s a reason that his run seems to stand alone and apart -his voice was so particular and so meaningful. And there was a lot of expectation around whether or not he could do it again. I adore those first four series -and I don’t think Doctor Who  since has equalled them, but I have been a sceptic around Davies’ return to the program (those comments about making it more like the MCU still trouble me). And that old spark hasn’t quite been apparent, even in those nostalgia-baiting 60th anniversary specials . “73 Yards” proves undoubtedly that it is still there -an episode that may rank among the best of Doctor Who ’s modern era...