Bad Times At The El Royale Is A Mostly Good Time

After six years of waiting since his directorial debut project The Cabin in the Woods turned out to be such a phenomenal blast, writer/director Drew Goddard finally returns behind the camera with Bad Times at the El Royale. Interestingly, despite having a larger cast and a bigger budget to work with, Goddard (who also wrote the scripts for Cloverfield and The Martian) goes smaller-in-scale than he did on Cabin in the Woods. No threats of zombie rednecks or possible worldwide consequences for the actions of our lead characters here, instead, Goddard does a Rashomon-esque take on a quasi-Hateful Eight set-up wherein we follow the differing perspectives of a group of strangers staying in one location over the course of a solitary night.

The Last Picture Show Fully Commits To A Melancholy Tone, Resulting In A Haunting Movie

Teenagers finally got to be widely recognized as a source of both revenue and storytelling in American pop culture in the 1950's which meant, because nostalgia is such a cornerstone of our pop culture. it was only a matter of time before art depicting teenagers inhabiting that specific pivotal era were created. The 1970's were bursting with pop culture that depicted teenager characters getting into adventures from Grease to Happy Days (American Graffiti was another 1970's pop culture entity that exploited nostalgia for teenage years, though that one was set in the 1960's). Most of these films were upbeat happy-go-lucky fare that looked back on 1950's teenagers with rose-colored glasses.

I Spy A Disappointing Sequel Called Kingsman: The Golden Circle

The newest Kingsman adventure follows the typical trajectory of many sequels in that it decides to blow up the scale of its predecessor to massive proportions. "Go Big Or Go Home" as they say and Kingsman: The Golden Circle does go big but it wasn't long into this films running time that I was wondering when I'd be able to go home. Turns out Kingsman: The Golden Circle has also followed the trajectory of many underwhelming sequels in that it's traded in fun and wit for simply a larger scale for its narrative. At least it's able to contribute to 2017's lovely trend of John Denver songs popping up across various pieces of cinema (Logan Lucky, Okja and Free Fire are among the other 2017 titles to make use of this man's music).

The Only Living Boy In New York Is So Boring It'll Send Audiences Into A Snooze

Just as Star Wars is still influencing modern day blockbusters in way both big and small, fellow noteworthy 1977 motion picture Annie Hall, and other iconic Woody Allen movies that would follow it like Manhattan, are still having their impact felt on movies made in 2017. So many intimate dialogue and character driven dramas in the modern age still look to the works of Woody Allen as a guiding star of sorts, hoping the same level of critical adulation and high-quality storytelling that marked Allen's best works in the 70's will also befall their creative endeavors. That seems to be the hope of The Only Living Boy In New York, a Marc Webb movie that very much seems like it's a Woody Allen movie wannabe.

There's Plenty Of Excitement To Be Had In Hell Or High Water

It's always nice to see movies that actually understand Texas and don't treat it like some idyllic postcard that's an ode to "the good o'l days". Instead, Texas as depicted in Hell Or High Water is very much true to life, full of people struggling to make the ways of farming work in the modern day world (one dude who's trying to wrangle his cattle during his thunderstorm jokes about how he wonders why his kids don't wanna do this job), red Coke cups in every diner and those smaller towns that aren't just an anomaly in America but even in Texas itself which is, in 2016, dominated by bustling metroplexes.

The Little Prince Beautifully Contemplates Mortality, Friendship And The Nature Of Growing Up

When we're kids, we know, even if it's just subconsciously, that we'll all one day become the very grown-ups, the ones that seem to have to have all answers and tower over us at such a young age. As one grows older and the days and years fly by, it begins to slowly dawn on you that, as the years go by, the inevitable is occurring...you've grown up. It's not an automatic thing, but a gradual one. And you quickly learn that adults, well, they don't have all the answers, no one does. In the words of the father from Calvin & Hobbes: "I don't think I'd have been in such a hurry to reach adulthood if I'd known this whole thing was going to be ad-libbed".

I Hereby Crown The Fisher King One Of The Best American Movies Dealing With Mental Illness

Two years ago this past Thursday, Robin Williams tragically passed away, leaving a massive hole in the world of entertainment that no other human being can hope to fill. The man was overwhelming in the level of talent he commanded and Terry Gilliam's The Fisher King is a prime example of how this was a guy who could create a bounty of varying emotions in his performances. There's plenty of laughs to be had in Robin Williams acting here, but there's also a tremendous amount of pain here that no other actor could have pulled off like Williams does.

Box Office Analysis: Walden Media, The Box Office Flop Factory

Few studios or filmmakers can create a dud like Walden Media. Now, admittedly, these guys aren't the only one financing the projects they find themselves in, and they don't distribute any of their projects. But they do have a hand in what films they get attached to, and the majority of them are adaptations of books that look incredibly generic in marketing materials. It's no shocker to me that the few hits they've been a part of (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, Witch and The Wardrobe, Charlotte's Web, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island) had effective marketing campaigns or the presence of Dwayne Johnson.