DC and Warner Brothers’ Justice League enters the movie-sphere lugging a fair amount of baggage. Wonder Woman—2017’s previous installment in DC’s extended universe—was a success, but the two prior outings—Man of Steel (2013) and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)—did little to flesh out the … Continue reading JUSTICE LEAGUE
Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion … I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward. —Kurt Vonnegut A mother’s daughter has been slain. Worse, the teenager was raped while she … Continue reading THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE OF EBBING, MISSOURI
Love can spring up in the most unlikely of places. Nathan (Arnaud Valois) probably didn’t have romance on the brain when he started attending Act Up-Paris meetings in the early 1990s, but he found Sean (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart) all the … Continue reading BPM (BEATS PER MINUTE)
A samurai watches his younger sister cut down in front of him, and he proceeds to exacts his revenge. But they are legion, and he is one. No matter, death is a small price to pay when vengeance is on … Continue reading BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL
The God of Thunder returns, and he’s bringing the pyrotechnics to Marvel’s latest installment of sound and fury. Thor: Ragnorak, the 17th installment in Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, continues the latest trend of Marvel movies: irreverent humor, ironic heroes, and plenty of … Continue reading THOR: RAGNAROK
This half-documentary, half-narrative is constructed entirely from closed-circuit cameras—dash cams, security footage, red-light cameras, etc.—uploaded to a cloud service in 2013 and made available for anyone with time on their hands. But director Xu Bing doesn’t simply rely on observation; he … Continue reading DRAGONFLY EYES (蜻蜓之眼)
The Denver Film Festival (DFF) turns 40 this year, and for the next two weekends, the Sie Film Center, the UA Pavilions, and the Ellie Caulkins Opera House become the center of moviegoing in the Centennial State. With roughly 150 … Continue reading The Cinema Awaits: Dispatches From the 40th Denver Film Festival
When writer/director Jason Hall’s brother returned home from the 1990s conflict in the Middle East, he did so with his “arms and legs and sense of humor intact.” However, the more Hall talked to his brother, the more he realized … Continue reading THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE
The story of Christopher Robin and Winnie-the-Pooh does not begin in the Hundred Acre Woods with a bear of very little brain living under the name of Sanders but in the French trenches of World War I. Here, there are … Continue reading GOODBYE CHRISTOPHER ROBIN
Michael J. Cinema 
You must be logged in to post a comment.