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Sum Up | Godzilla, Part One: Showa
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 4, 2018
Since 1954, Japan’s Toho Company Limited has made over thirty Godzilla films. There are three distinct eras of Toho Godzilla movies–the Showa, the Hensei, and the Millennium. Most of the films, at least during Showa era, got dubbed theatrical releases in the United States. If they didn’t get theatr read more
Stormy Monday (1988, Mike Figgis)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 3, 2018
Stormy Monday is beauty in despondence. The film is set over a few days in Newcastle, where the local businesses have given up hope on any economic recovery of their own and instead are letting shady American businessman Tommy Lee Jones spearhead an “American week.” You get a discount for being read more
Greetings from Africa (1996, Cheryl Dunye)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 2, 2018
In Greetings from Africa writer, director, and star Dunye mixes formats. Her first person comments to the camera are black and white video. The dramatized story is color film. Very, very colorful film. Dunye and cinematographer Sarah Cawley have some affected, formalist shots–even though Duny read more
Dick Tracy (1937, Ray Taylor and Alan James), Chapter 6: Dangerous Waters
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 1, 2018
Dangerous Waters opens with an unbelievable cliffhanger resolve. Not unbelievably good, unbelievably cheap. I can’t imagine what made me think they wouldn’t go unbelievably cheap. I was clearly giving Dick Tracy too much credit. After the resolve, the chapter’s back to “formula.” It’s even read more
Sometimes a Great Notion (1971, Paul Newman)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 31, 2018
Sometimes a Great Notion is all about the joys of toxic masculinity and apathy. At some points in the near two hour runtime, it might hint at being about the virtues of rugged American individualism, family, and maybe capitalism, but it’s not. Screenwriter John Gay avoids exploring those virtues li read more
Magic Mike XXL (2015, Gregory Jacobs)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 30, 2018
Every once and a while, Magic Mike XXL throws in some vague nod towards having character development. It doesn’t. And the movie knows it doesn’t need any, but it still pretends it does. All of the characters have the same arc, with the exception of “lead” Channing Tatum. He’s only the lead read more
Let Me In (2010, Matt Reeves)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 29, 2018
Let Me In is ponderously stylized. Director (and screenwriter) Reeves approaches the film–about a twelve year-old boy (Kodi Smit-McPhee) who befriends the new girl in his apartment complex, also ostensibly twelve years old. Chloë Grace Moretz is the girl. She’s not just a girl, she’s a vampire. read more
Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018, Christopher McQuarrie)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 28, 2018
Mission: Impossible – Fallout is two and a half hours of almost constant, continuous action. There’s an opening sequence to set things up–Tom Cruise botches a mission because he likes his sidekicks too much (and who wouldn’t like Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg, who make a fantastic pair in the read more
Seven Samurai (1954, Kurosawa Akira)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 27, 2018
Seven Samurai is about a farming village, under imminent threat of bandits raiding and stealing their crop–and possibly doing much worse–who decides to hire samurai to defend them. They send four men–Fujiwara Kamatari, Kosugi Yoshio, Tsuchiya Yoshio, and Hidari Bokuzen–to town to hire the samurai. read more
A Quiet Place (2018, John Krasinski)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 26, 2018
It’d be nice if A Quiet Place were exasperating. If, after seventy or eighty minutes of building tension, the finale somehow disappointed. It doesn’t. It’s not exactly predictable, but by the time it arrives, it’s been obvious for a while the movie’s not really going anywhere. The film’s read more
The Babadook (2014, Jennifer Kent)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 25, 2018
So much of The Babadook is so good, it almost doesn’t matter the film’s third act is a series of little disasters. Director (and writer) Kent does such an exquisite job with the film until then, she can basically coast to the end credits. The Babadook is a spectacularly made film; Kent’s direction, read more
Fun Mom Dinner (2017, Alethea Jones)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 24, 2018
The best thing about Fun Mom Dinner is the soundtrack. It’s all mainstream early-to-mid eighties hits–some Cars, 99 Luftballons, the song from the end of Sixteen Candles because a Jack Ryan crush is a major plot point (which is a little weird since it’s lead Katie Aselton was six when Sixteen read more
Get Out (2017, Jordan Peele)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 23, 2018
What’s particularly stunning about Get Out is how nimble director (and writer) Peele gets with the protagonist, Daniel Kaluuya, and the narrative distance to him. Peele’s very patient with his cuts. Lots of long shots, establishing what Kaluuya is seeing (as well as the audience); the audience has read more
Sid and Nancy (1986, Alex Cox)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 22, 2018
It takes a while for anyone in Sid & Nancy to be likable. Even after they’re likable, it’s not like they’re particularly sympathetic. They’re tragic, sure, which is director Cox and cowriter Abbe Wool’s point, but entirely unpleasant to spend time with. The film has a bookend–Sid (Gary read more
Vivacious Lady (1938, George Stevens)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 21, 2018
Vivacious Lady strengths easily outweigh its weaknesses, but those weaknesses have a way of compounding on each other as the film moves to its conclusion. The most obvious–and usually forgiveable–problem is how the film can’t decide what to do with Ginger Rogers, the Vivacious Lady. Not the film, read more
The Sound Barrier (1952, David Lean)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 20, 2018
There’s a lot to The Sound Barrier. Outside the truly magnificent aerial photography, not much of it has to do with the film itself. Other than director Lean and writer Terence Rattigan rewriting actual history to make it so a private British aircraft company “broke” the sound barrier some five read more
An Untitled Portrait (1993, Cheryl Dunye)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 19, 2018
When it starts, An Untitled Portrait is about Dunye’s brother. But it’s also going to be Dunye’s family in general. But it’s also going to be about Dunye herself. The short runs three minutes, Dunye’s narration set to home movies, old film clips, but also some stylized original footage of read more
Dick Tracy (1937, Ray Taylor and Alan James), Chapter 5: Brother Against Brother
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 18, 2018
There’s no great action in Brother Against Brother. There’s what might be a real cliffhanger–Ralph Byrd shot (figure it’s safe to spoil since Byrd’s the lead and it’s chapter five of fifteen). I guess there’s some good effects at the beginning with some of the plane stuff. It doesn’t read more
A Cry in the Night (1956, Frank Tuttle)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 17, 2018
If it weren’t for the cast, there’d be very little to distinguish A Cry in the Night. John F. Seitz’s black and white photography is often–but not always–quite good, though director Tuttle struggles with the composition. He composes for the squarer Academy ratio, not widescreen. Cry in the read more
Dick Tracy (1937, Ray Taylor and Alan James), Chapter 4: Death Rides the Sky
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 16, 2018
Death Rides the Sky does not follow the concerning pattern of the previous two chapters where information falls into Ralph Byrd’s lap and he ignores it only to discover it’s of vital importance. In Rides, he knows the information of vital importance right off. Cuts down on later confusion. The chap read more