Tim Burton's Take On Dumbo Results In A Perfunctory Pachyderm

In the newest entry in the recent line of live-action remakes of classic animated Disney movies, we have Tim Burton directing a new take on Dumbo. This story now focuses on Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell), who has returned from World War I without his left arm and having missed the passing of his wife. Now having to take care of his two kids, Milly (Nico Parker) and Joe (Finley Hobbins), on his own, he returns to the circus he worked at as a performer before the war only to have ringmaster Max Medici (Danny DeVito) assign him the new duty of taking care of the elephants. It is in this job that Holt and his offspring encounter the newly born elephant Dumbo, a critter with abnormally large ears who is turned into a sideshow attraction and separated from his mama in short order.

With In Bruges, Director Martin McDonagh Made A Phenomenal Foul-Mouth First Foray Into Helming Feature Films

SPOILERS FOR IN BRUGES AHEAD

Something I just discovered about director Martin McDonagh, the man behind Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and Seven Psychopaths, is that he's been primarily a man of theatre in his writing/directing career. He did about a decade of consistent work in the world of plays that was showered with acclaim and Tony award nominations before deciding to direct his first feature film, 2008's In Bruges. Directing motion pictures may have been unfamiliar terrain for McDonagh, but the process of directing, in general, was not and his experience with directing plays likely informed the assured hand that guides the one-of-a-kind nature of In Bruges to such exceptional success.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer Slaughters Normalcy With It's Depraved Farcical Storytelling. That's A Compliment.

If you saw 2016's excellent dark comedy The Lobster, then you're fully aware how much writer/director Yorgos Lanthimos loves to weave tales heavy on weirdness and people committing ever-escalating acts of depravity in the service of an extended metaphor. He keeps that spirit very much alive for his newest movie The Killing of a Sacred Deer, which is akin to The Lobster as well as last year's The Square in terms of being a dark comedy that keeps daring the audience to look away from the various hideous acts occuring on-screen. So utterly unconventional is The Killing of a Sacred Deer that I imagine writers Yorgo Lanthimos and Efthymis Filippou started their first writing session with this simple statement:

Denzel Washington Decides To Fight The Law And Nobody Wins In Roman J. Israel, Esq

The new Dan Gilroy movie, Roman J. Israel, Esq., reminded me explicitly of last year's two Illumination Entertainment movies, The Secret Life of Pets and Sing (boy, I'm sure you're all tired of hearing that oft-repeated comparision, huh?). Like those two 2016 animated features, Roman J. Isreal, Esq. seems to have started out as a basic one-sentence pitch (what if Denzel Washington played a morally virtuous lawyer who becomes corrupt?) that people were understandably enamored with and then nobody bothered to flesh it out beyond that, resulting in a motion picture that tries to be a thoughtful character-drvien drama but it has no meat on its bones, it's skinnier thematically than a praying mantis.

The Time Has Arrived To Watch The Trailer For True Detective's Second Season

True Detective was one of the biggest TV shows of last year, and while I haven't watched it yet (I'll catch up on it on HBO Go before it's next season debuts, I promise), I'm still excited for the second season of the program, if only based on the cast. Rachel McAdams in anything gets me interested, but toss in dramatic Vince Vaughn and Taylor Kitsch and I'm totally in. The first trailer for this new season has just arrived, and you can watch it below.