Murder in the Fleet (1935, Edward Sedgwick)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 12, 2018
Murder in the Fleet is a reasonably diverting little B murder mystery; Frank Wead and Joseph Sherman’s script is almost better than the film deserves, given it doesn’t even run seventy minutes and doesn’t even bother pretending it’s got subplots. Well, outside top-billed and sort of lead Robert read more
Come Swim (2017, Kristen Stewart)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 11, 2018
As Come Swim gets under way, the short provokes a couple thoughts. First, it’s not really going to be eighteen minutes, is it? Spoiler, not only is it eighteen minutes, it’s two separate short films stuck together with the first nine minutes or so being a dream sequence. Or is it a dream sequence? read more
Dick Tracy (1937, Ray Taylor and Alan James), Chapter 8: Battle in the Clouds
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 10, 2018
Nowhere near as many wipes this chapter, but that lack doesn’t really help things. The cliffhanger resolve is another reveal one; turns out it wasn’t the bad guys shooting those guns off-screen, it was the good guys. So there wasn’t really a cliffhanger at all. Like always. It’s never a cliffhanger read more
Lick the Star (1998, Sofia Coppola)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 9, 2018
The opening narration of Lick the Star, which isn’t from the same character as the end narration, explains the ground situation. Ostensible protagonist Christina Turley has just returned to school after her father accidentally ran over her foot. So she’s on crutches. She worries her group of friend read more
Dick Tracy (1937, Ray Taylor and Alan James), Chapter 7: The Ghost Town Mystery
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 8, 2018
The Ghost Town Mystery has a lot of wipes. Half wipes, quartering wipes, circular wipes. Wipe, wipe, wipe, wipe. I swear there haven’t been this many wipes in the serial until now. There’s also some terrible insert shots of lead Ralph Byrd when he’s listening to someone. Edward Todd, Helene Turner, read more
Avengers: Infinity War (2018, Anthony Russo and Joe Russo)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 7, 2018
Avengers: Infinity War has quite a few significant achievements. Special effects, for example. But the two most salient ones are Josh Brolin’s performance (of a CG character, no less) and the pacing. Directors Russo and screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely do an extraordinary job ju read more
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017, James Gunn)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 6, 2018
I’m going to start by saying some positive things about Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. It has fantastic CG. Wow is cinematographer Henry Braham truly inept at compositing it with live footage, but the CG is fantastic. Whether it’s the exploding spaceships or exploding planets or the genetically read more
Lawn Dogs (1997, John Duigan)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 5, 2018
There’s a lot going on in Lawn Dogs. Lots of good things, lots of strange things, lots of bad things; the worst is probably housewife Kathleen Quinlan’s lover molesting her daughter, Mischa Barton. The film doesn’t want to deal with it. Lawn Dogs is lots of visual splendor, courtesy director Duigan read more
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