Political Ups And (Especially) Downs Are Chronicled In The Gripping Documentary Weiner

Like being an actor, being a politician shoves your entire life (and the lives of everyone you hold dear) into the public eye for all of the world to gawk at. If things are going swimmingly, such large amounts of attention may come in the form of massive crowds of fans. When things are not going according to play, well, you can suddenly feel every single one of the millions of eyeballs watching your every minuscule move. Oh, and amidst all that attention, you've also gotta do your job as a politician, which will likely include overseeing legislation and pieces of lawmaking that will immediately affect countless citizens.

Sing Street Is A Euphoric Ode To The Power Of Music

It's been a pretty rough year for sure, no denying that. Like, I've had enough personal problems this year to fill up a whole silo, adding in all the real life tragedies and political turmoil happening in our country and it's easy to see why this year has been such a chaotic spiral of despair. So if you're looking for something peppy, something with a kind spirit or something just to make you feel good, allow me to introduce you to John Carney's Sing Street, one of the unsung (see what I did there??) gems of 2016 that's all but certain to put a spring in anyone's step and not just because of the awesome soundtrack!

Go Watch The Invitation And Then Come Back And Read My Spoilery Review For It.

I typically don't do spoiler-filled reviews, that should be as clear at this point as my utter refusal to do letter or star grades to accompany my reviews. Even for classic movies that are decades old and whose big twists are as well-known as anything else, I'd rather not spoil things in case someone who hasn't seen said classic films comes along to my review. That being said, The Interview is one film where I feel like you must experience it going in cold, especially since the lower-profile release of the movie means there hasn't been a pervasive marketing campaign that's even given away the tone or basic conceit of the motion picture. So I urge you to go watch The Invitation on Netflix right now and then come back and read my analysis of it, alrighty? :)

The Boss Review

If Paul Feig is seemingly the best filmmaker for Melissa McCarthy to work (judging by their super great track record of Spy and Ghostbusters), then Ben Falcone may be the nadir of directors McCarthy has worked with, namely because Falcone directed Tammy, the absolute worst comedy of McCarthy's career. She and Falcone (who is Melissa McCarthy's real-life husband) reunite for The Boss, a new comedy that can be rightfully praised as a step up from Tammy...and that's about it.

Everybody Wants Some!! Is A Joyride Through The 80's Steered By Richard Linklater

Richard Linklater is absolutely in the zone with Everybody Wants Some!!, his newest directorial effort that has him setting his sights on the culture of the 1980's in the same way he thoroughly examined the 1970's in his landmark motion picture Dazed & Confused. And just like that 1993 film, human beings bouncing off each other in an academic environment is the name of the game, though in Everybody Wants Some!! the environment has shifted from the high school domicile of Dazed & Confused to college, specifically the weekend before one freshman's first college classes (and by default, a new chapter of his life) begins.

The Meddler Review

Susan Sarandon, currently in her fifth straight decade of acting prominently in American cinema, may be one of the great underappreciated legends of Hollywood. Not only is there real versatility in the types of roles she typically plays (she's appeared in everything from George Miller & Ridley Scott dramas to two separate Lonely Island music videos), but it's also hard to think of a movie where she "phoned it in" if you will. Hell, even in garbage like Tammy she manages to score a laugh or two (though I freely admit I haven't seen critically reviled films where she only had a small role to work with like That's My Boy and The Big Wedding).

Green Room Review

You know all the hype you've heard about Green Room for the past month or two? All of that deafening praise surrounding the newest movie from director Jeremy Saulnier? Well, I'm here today to say all of that chitter-chatter was....more than well-earned. Yep, Green Room is indeed a superb thriller, one that's packed to the gills with bloody mayhem and strong screenwriting as well as a turn from Anton Yelchin that cemented him in my eyes as a more than viable leading man.

Bottle Rocket Review (Classic Write-Up)

Recent years have been kind to American auteur filmmaker/genius Wes Anderson. Merging his unique visual aesthetic with introspective themes and emotional content has made his last three films among the best of the still young century. My adoration of the man's work meant I carried a large amount of interest in watching his very first feature film, Bottle Rocket. This 1996 feature film debut for Anderson was an expansion on an earlier short film subject of the same name that also starred the two leading men of this film, Luke Wilson and Owen Wilson, two actors (most notably Owen, who, along with Jason Schwartzman and Bill Murray, ended up becoming the Leonardo DiCaprio to Wes Anderson's Martin Scorsese) who would become staples of Andersons future work.

Film On The Television (4/29/2016): Love Is Strange On Starz Cinema

I've written extensively in the past about how badly Sony Pictures Classics has botched the releases of numerous noteworthy dramas in recent years and few films suffered as badly at the hands of the studios incompetence as the fantastic 2014 drama Love Is Strange. Starring John Lithgow and Alfred Molina as a couple going through financial struggles, it's a smartly written film with two incredible lead performances that should have been treated better, nay, far better, in its theatrical release.

Luckily, you have the chance to watch it tonight on Starz Cinema and I strongly urge you to do so. Perhaps the most extraordinary part of Love Is Strange is how it refuses to toss in contrived dramatic scenarios just for the sake of creating "high-stakes". No one gets an all of a sudden illness, no one is caught in an affair, Love Is Strange realizes that far more compelling drama can be found in the everyday interactions with the people around us. It's a smartly written movie and Lithgow and Molina are absolutely incredible in the lead roles. Love Is Strange may not have gotten poorly treated in its theatrical release, but I strongly urge you to check it out now.

Love Is Strange airs on Starz Cinema tonight at 8:20 PM Eastern time.

A Hologram For The King Review

A Hologram For The King is the second collaboration between Tom Hanks and director Tom Tykwer, following up on their work on the 2012 masterpiece Cloud Atlas (Tykwer directed three of the segments in that feature). Seriously, that ambitious sprawling cinematic tour de force is one of the most criminally underrated films in recent years and the concept of the two reuniting is a tantalizing prospect. Unfortunately, all of the nuance and introspection that came with Cloud Atlas won't be found here. If Cloud Atlas was charged by a spirit of gusto, A Hologram For The King is instead fueled by nothing more than simply tedium.

Norm Of The North Review

Once or twice a year, we are blessed with movies from small-scale animation companies who seem convinced that it's easy as pie to replicate the artistic success experienced by the likes of PIXAR. All ya need is computer graphics, lots of shouting and talking animals to churn out the next Inside Out, right? Right? Of course not, but it never seems to cross these producers minds that such an equation would be faulty. Then again, maybe there's a far darker explanation going on for why Norm Of The North exists because I honestly cannot see how any human being with a functioning brain would think this final product was fit to be released.

The Jungle Book Review

I'm a hardcore Disney fan (my first word as a human being, believe it or not, was Disney), but, to be perfectly frank, this new wave of live-action adaptations of classic Disney cartoons hasn't really done much for me. Alice In Wonderland was typical modern day Tim Burton pablum, Maleficent's few interesting ideas (namely weaving in a metaphor for rape into the backstory of its titular character) were severely overshadowed by how tedious and uninspired the rest of the film's story and characters were and Cinderella was only inoffensive at best. But finally, oh finally, one of these live-action adaptations has finally turned out to be a well-made movie in its own right.

Criminal Review

OK, so, the plot for Criminal is more than a bit dense, so allow me to parse through it with a synopsis. Jericho Stewart (Kevin Costner) is a criminal serving a life sentence who, thanks to being thrown out of a car as a child, basically has no frontal lobe. The movie uses this as an excuse for why he has no moral compass or any knowledge of what emotions are. That lack of a frontal lobe is also why Jericho specifically is the perfect candidate for a procedure wherein scientist Dr. Franks (Tommy Lee Jones) will inject Jericho with the memories of the recently deceased secret agent Bill Pope (Ryan Reynolds), who tragically passed away while doing the cinematography for The Jungle Book. High-ranking military official Quaker Wells (Gary Oldman) hopes that, with Pope's memories in Stewart's body, he'll able to retrieve the whereabouts of a man who has control of an arsenal of nuclear weaponry.

Marvel Movie News Galore! A Trailer For Doctor Strange, A Title For Spider-Man And A Co-Star For Thor!

The press tour for Captain America: Civil War is well on its way, and whenever an entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has its stars, director and producers on the road promoting a feature, there's bound to be juicy tidbits about future Marvel Cinematic Universe features unveiled, particularly when one is talking to the head of Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige. Don't expect this to be the last time we get a bunch of Marvel news (Civil War is still three weeks away from its domestic release), but for now, I thought I'd compile three particularly noteworthy MCU related news items into one article.

Hardcore Henry Review

If you've even had only the briefest exposure to the advertising campaign of Hardcore Henry, you likely are all too aware that the films big claim-to-fame is that it was shot in a first-person style of filming, putting the viewer at the center of the story of Henry, a man whose awoken with no memory but has been given various technological enhancements in his body that make him an unstoppable killing machine. Those upgrades are a positive, but less uplifting is that a very bad man by the name of Akan (Danila Kozlovsky) has kidnapped Henry's wife, Estelle (Haley Bennett).

Batman And Superman Are No Match For The Boss While Hardcore Henry Gets Slaughtered

Twas not Doomsday nor Lex Luthor nor Darkseid that took down Batman v. Superman at the box office. No, Melissa McCarthy was the one to end the box office reign of those two superheroes, with her newest movie taking the number one spot at the box office with $24.5 million. That's a 15% increase from the opening weekend of Tammy, though that one burned off demand by opening on a Wednesday. It is noticeably lower than the bows of Spy, Identity Thief and The Heat, though the smaller $29 million budget of The Boss means Universal probably aren't sweating bullets over this box office performance.

Midnight Special Review

Midnight Special is the sort of movie that hits the ground running and never looks back. The story begins in media res and from there backstory is doled out in small doses throughout numerous points. Jeff Nichols shows some obvious ingenuity when it comes to concocting a cohesive narrative with this approach; he's well aware that numerous elements of the plot will be foreign to all viewers and require proper explanation. But he's also not willing to sacrifice the thrust of the narrative so he can have an entire shoehorned in scene that overwhelms the audience with answers. Instead, he lets the tale live and breathe, with clarification coming to light when needed while other aspects of the movie remain satisfyingly ambiguous.

Eye In The Sky Review

Any new technological advancement is going to be met with a wide gamut of responses, especially when said piece of technology can drastically change the way our society operates. Just look at how the very presence of cell phones has upended social conventions the world over. When those leap forwards in technology apply to a piece of military hardware, a whole new level of scrutiny is applied to the object, mainly because, more likely than not, this newly created device could be responsible for the loss of lives. The advent of nuclear weaponry was one such military-related creation that sparked debates about morality that are still ongoing today, while today's modern day military technological advancement that's creating plenty of conversation is drone warfare.

God's Not Dead 2 Review

And so, the day has come, when the single most anticipated sequel since The Land Before Time XIV would arrive onto the populace to spread "wisdom" and "harmony".  Yes, folks, God's Not Dead 2 has been bestowed upon us all. In this second chapter of the God's Not Dead saga, Grace Wesley (Melissa Joan Hart), is a High School teacher whose Jesus Christ-related answer to a student's question ends up getting her into some hot water. More specifically, her actions end up getting her embroiled in a court case where the opposing lawyers are out to prove once and for all....that God is dead. She's gonna need the help of a kindly non-believing lawyer named Tom Endler (Jesse Metcalfe), the wisdom of God's grace and I'm gonna need even more assistance to stay awake during the two hour run-time of this cinematic fiasco.

J.K. Simmons Gets On Zack Snyder's Tempo, Will Play Commissioner Gordon In Justice League

After numerous false starts (one of which, back in 2007, even had George Miller onboard to direct!), a live-action Justice League movie is on the way from director Zack Snyder, with filming set to start on April 11, 2016. In terms of new characters in the film, there's no official word on who the bad guy of the production is, but some imagery from the Batman v. Superman promotional materials explicitly spells out the idea that Darkseid will factor heavily into the plot. But we do have word on another new character that'll be in the film, Commissioner Gordon, who will be played by J.K. Simmons in the film, and presumably will reprise the role in future DC Comics features like a solo Batman movie.