VICE
As the old saying goes: Hindsight is 20-20. But therein lies the trap, the notion that since we can see the past clearly, we can also understand it. If history has taught us anything, untangling what we know from what … Continue reading VICE
Tag: Brad Pitt
BABYLON
Damien Chazelle loves movies. He thinks you should too, which is probably why he includes a lengthy scene from one of the most recognizable movies ever made as the climax of his latest, Babylon. It’s a cheat, a cop, a sham, … Continue reading BABYLON
SHE SAID
It opens with a young woman walking her dog along the shore. There she stumbles upon a group of men in 18th-century British red coats unloading a clipper ship. It’s the 1990s: What in the world is going on here? … Continue reading SHE SAID
AD ASTRA
Ad Astra, from filmmaker par excellence James Gray, opens with a shot of the cosmos, vast and terrifying. As the camera pans across the twinkling dots of a thousand suns, a lens flare catches the frame and briefly illuminates the … Continue reading AD ASTRA
THE TREE OF LIFE
Written and directed by Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life—available on Blu-ray and DVD from The Criterion Collection—is a watershed moment in contemporary cinema. Pairing the impressionistic poetry of cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, the abstract visual effects of Douglas Trumbull, the concrete … Continue reading THE TREE OF LIFE
And the winners are…
Earlier today, the Denver Film Critics Society — 16 writers and broadcasters working in and around the Mile High City, of which I am one — announced their picks for the year’s best. Of the 41 movies nominated, 1917 (above) … Continue reading And the winners are…
THE LOST CITY OF Z
For his first five films, writer/director James Gray set his stories in New York City. Makes sense, considering Gray is a born and raised New Yorker, but with his two most recent films, Gray looks far beyond the Burroughs. Releasing … Continue reading THE LOST CITY OF Z
ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD
Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood is a fairy tale of two houses. Inside one lives Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio, magnificent), a TV star cut from the Steve McQueen fold. Simultaneously in his prime and all washed up, Dalton spends most of his time around Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), Dalton’s one-time stunt double, now driver/gopher/drinking buddy; a close friend who is “more than a brother, less than a wife,” according to the movie’s narrator. Continue reading ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD
ALLIED
From the birth of talking pictures in the late 1920s to the emergence of the European New Wave and rising counter-culture in the ’60s, Hollywood studio movies dominated the American market. We now broadly define these movies as Classic Hollywood, … Continue reading ALLIED
Michael J. Cinema 
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