For Ben Manalowitz, America is just a theory. And he’s got plenty of them: Theories that favor time over space, myth over fact, conspiracy over simplicity. Some are good, really good, but a lot are over-cooked, over-thought, and over-analyzed after … Continue reading VENGEANCE
Ashley (Storm Reid) and Uncle Jack (David Oyelowo) have a close relationship. Her father, his brother, was once a screw-up. And though his life has mostly been on the straight-and-narrow ever since, Dad still isn’t a reliable phone call away. … Continue reading DON’T LET GO
It’s not easy being a high schooler, let alone a high schooler in a small town. It seems like everyone knows who you are. And if they don’t, then they at least know who your parents are. Sometimes that’s worse. … Continue reading MA
The story of Us begins in 1986, on the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, with a young girl, Adelaide Wilson (Madison Curry), and her two parents. Dad’s a little drunk, but he does manage to win her a Thriller t-shirt and buy her … Continue reading US
How do comic books work? M. Night Shyamalan knows, and he’d really like you to know. Not how comic books work; Shyamalan wants you to know that he knows how comic books work. It’s an important distinction (though I’m not sure why), … Continue reading GLASS
It’s a famous shot from one of the most widely seen movies in the history of cinema: Scarlett O’Hara searching desperately for a doctor in a sea of wounded and dead soldiers. As Scarlett searches, the camera cranes high into … Continue reading BLACKKKLANSMAN
Get Out opens with a scene that might as well be ripped from newspaper headlines. Well, maybe it was. Andrew (Lakeith Stanfield), a black man, walks alone, at night, along a neighborhood street so quiet, so pleasant, so blandly cookie-cutter, it … Continue reading GET OUT
Michael J. Cinema 