The visuals are stunning—that you can probably guess. Not all are perfect: too many, intentionally, have the herky-jerky quality of a first-person shooter video game. But others have a tactility that renders the descriptor “photo-realistic” inadequate. Most movies traffic in … Continue reading AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH
The man sits alone in his room. His name is Narvel Roth (Joel Edgerton) and he is a gardener, but he might as well be Reverend Ernst Toller (Ethan Hawke) or gambler William Tell (Oscar Isaac) or any one of … Continue reading MASTER GARDENER
Everything was going so well for Jake Sully (Sam Worthington). He became a full-fledged Na’vi, the leader of the Omatikaya clan, married Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), fathered two boys (Jamie Flatters and Britain Dalton), a daughter (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), and adopted … Continue reading AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER
Preeminent film director Howard Hawks succinctly described a good movie: “Three great scenes, no bad ones.” Many have tried to elaborate on what defines a good movie through various criteria and rubrics, but all fall short of Hawks’ dictum. “Three … Continue reading FINDING DORY
Working as a screenwriter, I always thought that “Film is a collaborative business” only constituted half of the actual phrase. From a screenwriter’s point-of-view, the correct rendering should be “Film is a collaborative business: bend over.” —David Mamet I’m a … Continue reading Born On This Day — November 30
Michael J. Cinema 