The Napa Boys “Water! My favorite!” Would it be too deep if I told you Napa Boys is a love letter to movies? Look it up and see if you can find anyone who actually talks about the plot. Mostly, people just called it one big inside joke. I knew I was going to watch it because I’m a Doughboys fan and a Mike Mitchell fan, but with this cast I knew to also brace myself. A movie’s plot isn’t...
Boogie Nights Allow me to coin a terrible phrase. Paul Thomas Anderson is a “written-in” artist for me. Anything he does, I think, is worth watching. The opposite of course, being the “written-off” artist whose work I’ll actively avoid. Like, say, Christopher Nolan. It’s nothing personal, it’s just that some people’s work I feel like I can connect with more. I just reviewed One Battle After Another and found it kind of lackluster, but still somewhat interesting. How does...
One Battle After Another Boy, this is a tough one, but what better time than awards season when everyone is just going gaga over this to talk about it. I love PTA. I love him a lot, actually. Especially when you consider Phantom Thread and There Will Be Blood. His movies might not all be my cup of tea, but they’re definitely compelling and strange. Like a David Lynch movie that’s more grounded in reality. You can follow what you’re...
CompanionOriginal Motion Picture Soundtrackby Hrishikesh Hirway There’s only one group of movie fans more annoying than musical fans and that’s horror fans. They’re almost exclusively the same people who are overly obsessed with Halloween. A sad lot, really, because you’re basically reducing a movie to jump scares, or tropes within tropes. What’s the best scary movie released in recent years? Midsommar? Give me a break. Give YOURSELF a break and read a book. Which is why, I gotta say, bravo,...
A Minecraft Movie I’m a fan of Jared Hess and his Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre movies. Yes, they’re polarizing, but there’s a sense of G-rated fun that comes with them. Also, they’ve given us some pretty memorable characters. But, remember when the Minecraft Movie trailer came out and people were super upset at Jack Black? Probably because he was playing “the Jack Black character” which, again, is polarizing. I like him too (and his band) and didn’t expect people...
Watchmen: Chapter 1 Sure, Alan Moore is controversial but he’s also right most of the time. Even the worst Alan Moore work is kind of good, when you think about it. Can you blame him for wanting to have SOME sort of ownership over his comics? He only turned against the adaptations of his work once it became obvious that they would never remain true to their source material. His books still get made into movies, and he’s...
Civil War The only thing better than Civil War is the press tour Kirsten Dunst did for it. Not that anything she said was controversial, but because she came across as a cool-headed actress with perspective and confidence. She spoke out against genocide (wow!), avoiding plastic surgery (pot calling the kettle black?), and the stupidity of method acting. It was cool and endeared me to her even more. She’s cool, but you know what’s also cool? This movie. Of course,...
Purple Rain40th Anniversary Edition This is a weird one. The soundtrack is a banger, but the movie is straight up Prince propaganda. That may be obvious to everyone, but it’s also my main hangup with Prince. Prince the man, as he portrays himself, is what’s preventing me from truly loving his music. He’s just too full of himself. Sure, the music should speak for itself, and the album this movie is promoting (or vice versa) has some incredible songs....
The Venture Bros. Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart I am a Venture Bros fan. I love this show. I take my review of Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart seriously. How seriously? Let me tell you. In preparation for this movie I rewatched the entire series. One complaint of the show people have is that it has such long gaps between seasons that it’s hard to remember or follow what’s going on in a particular...
Elvis Give it up for Elvis, the original pop star. He’s popular on a global scale and was one of the fines performers the world has ever seen. Especially compared with pop stars these days, Elvis at least kept it real. What you saw was what you got. He didn’t pretend he wrote any of those songs he performed, because maybe, he was more interested in what you did with that song in front of an audience. Was he...