Americans love criminals. Something to do with the old west, or anyway the idea of the old west, of gunslingers roaming free across endless stretches of unexplored country, killing to […]

Compliance, opening today, is one of the most disturbing movies I’ve ever sat through. I’ve never felt more uncomfortably ill watching anything, and I’ve seen everything directed by Kevin Costner. […]

I saw a beautiful 35mm print of Citizen Kane at the Castro Theatre the other day, hadn’t seen it for many years, and while I realize saying this makes me […]

Oh, it’s on, people! Sight & Sound’s decennial list of the greatest 10 movies ever, as voted on by hordes of fancy-pants critics, has arrived, and Citizen Kane just got […]

Lying in bed this morning, pretending it wasn’t yet time to get up, I was thinking about the way hype and enthusiasm for films (and film franchises) has crossed a […]

There was a time when movie reviews meant something. That time is not now. Movie reviews today exist purely to voice an opinion such that it may be combined with […]

I’ve been thinking about backstory, thanks to the Evil One’s Spiderman post, in which he points out what should be to all sentient beings blindingly obvious, that no one on […]

You may have noticed that The Amazing Spiderman is now in theaters. Or maybe you didn’t. Maybe you thought, “Huh. People are talking about Spiderman again. But I just saw […]

This is a post about spoilers. Or rather, it’s a post about what people call spoilers. And it will contain spoilers, if you think that’s the right word to use, […]