Busting out of the gate at Sundance this past January, Panos Cosmatos' Mandy, starring Nicolas Cage, drew huge attention, especially, I suspect, from those who had disregarded Beyond the Black Rainbow, which was gorgeous and haunting in both spirit and...
Netflix's seemingly low-key ongoing rebrand tripped over frustratingly familiar stumbling blocks with The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. Originially conceived of as a series -- and only quite recently announced as a converted feature -- The Ballad of Buster Scruggs definitely bares...
In the twentieth century, it used to be decades (more often never) for our technological fears, and their refracted social mores, to manifest themselves into some kind of actuality. Now it seems the cycle-time of what we can conceive of,...
The new film by David Mackenzie, Outlaw King, is my pick of this weekend's streaming crop. Chris Pine, Florence Pugh and Aaron Taylor Johnson star; the historical battles and heated drama look impressive (watch trailer below). Mackenzie (Hell or High...
In 1975, I became aware of the existence of Orson Welles' The Other Side of the Wind. Excerpts were broadcast on a major television network during the third AFI Lifetime Achievement Award ceremony, honoring Welles. I was electrified at the...
Serving up a big bowl of angry stew, Gareth Evans' Apostle is a kinetic exercise in British folk horror. Full disclosure: I confess that I'm only vaguely familiar with the sub-genre. Watching the filmmaker's latest effort unfold on a big...
In one of the scenes with narration of Y tu mamá también, where the voice of Daniel Giménez Cacho gave a greater context to the actions of the protagonists and occasionally also of the social and political environment around them,...
Three new series, all of European origin, take place in very different environments, from young adult romance to harsh adult reality to brutal family dysfunction, and play out in varying lengths. All have something to recommend them.
For anyone not yet on the Netflix bandwagon or not planning to subscribe for Matt Groening’s upcoming Disenchantment, perhaps a new series by Cary Joji Fukunaga might tickle your fancy? Set to drop on September 21, Fukunaga’s highly anticipated return...
In my last column, I offered up my two-pronged solution to the frequent complaint about Netflix that their flood of new series all have too many episodes that are all too long, suggesting that viewers either try another streaming service...
The most frequent complaint about Netflix is that their flood of new series all have too many episodes that are all too long. Here is my two-pronged solution: (1) try another streaming service; (2) watch shorter shows with fewer episodes....
The opening scenes of The Hollow reminded me of the opening of Zork, one of the first text-based computer games. Back in the early 1980s, I remember eagerly buying the game and staring at the opening line, white text on...
It’s a toss-up as to whether one identifies more with the murder suspects or the murder victims, and that’s part of what makes Netflix's Evil Genius such irresistible viewing in its first two episodes. Part of me wants to say: “That’s...
South Korea’s Yeon Sang-ho explored fantastic cinema for the first time with his diptych about a zombie invasion, Seoul Station and Train to Busan. After a couple of totally sordid animated features, The King of Pigs and The Fake, Yeon...
Five years after landing her first job, Retsuko, an angry red panda, is losing her will to live. She is an accountant who faces daily, high-pressure demands from her superiors, as well as from her increasingly irritating coworkers. At the...
Where were you in 1981? In June of that year, I attended a lonely Saturday morning screening of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Unable to convince any of my friends to accompany me to a movie widely perceived as a...
The animated series A.I.C.O.: Incarnation, which premiered on Netflix worldwide on March 9, 2018, is terrific. Produced by Japanese studio Bones, directed by Murata Kazuya, and written by Nomura Yuuichi, the series is filled with nicely-choreographed action, while also taking...
Recently, I've been sampling a few non-English series from the past year or so that are available on Netflix. Are any sufficiently intriguing to justify the time investment to binge-watch them in their entirety? Have you seen any less-heralded shows...
The first trailer for Andrew Niccol's tech thriller Anon has dropped and, as always with Niccol, he's got me intrigued. While his films (Gattaca, Lord of War) don't always turn out to be winners, he continues to explore intriguing sci-fi...
