On Friday, Jan. 17, the Denver Film Critics Society—a group of writers, broadcasters, and bloggers working in and around the Mile High City, of which I am one—announced their nominees for the best of 2024. In total, a whopping 42 … Continue reading And the nominees are…
For Bruce Springsteen, it was the starting snare shot of “Like a Rolling Stone” that kicked open the door to his mind. He’s not wrong. And he’s not alone. That iconic Bob Dylan song has and will stand the test … Continue reading A COMPLETE UNKNOWN
You know he’s the one because he’s a movie star with piercing eyes, floppy hair, goth vulnerability, and untapped strength all in one. He’s Prince Hal making good. His name is Paul Atreides. It’s the name his parents gave him, … Continue reading DUNE: PART TWO
Lydia Tár is broken. Pulled from the podium, kicked out of her Berlin apartment, barred from seeing her daughter, the disgraced conductor returns to her family house on Long Island, pokes around her childhood room—perfectly preserved as if she were … Continue reading 2022: Accommodating for Others
Reporting from the 2022 Telluride Film Festival. It all starts so innocently: the invitation to a sleepover. The invited wants to go, but her father won’t let her. Not in a million years. He’s the type who installed a barrel … Continue reading BONES AND ALL
The spice exists on only one planet in the entire universe: A desolate, dry planet with vast deserts. Hidden away within the rocks of these deserts are a people known as the Fremen, who have long held a prophecy that … Continue reading DUNE: PART ONE
Wes Anderson’s cinematic style did not appear fully formed. It took a few movies over five years before Anderson locked in on formal compositions, planimetric framing, cuts along the 90-degree axis, diorama-esque interiors, Richard Scarry-like landscapes, idiosyncratic dialogue, peculiar characters, … Continue reading THE FRENCH DISPATCH
Jo March is elated. A few moments earlier, she was in excruciating pain: Another pie-eyed scribbler stranded on the non-editorial side of the desk. Too shy to admit the truth, Jo (Saoirse Ronan) claims the story is a creation of … Continue reading LITTLE WOMEN
1987, somewhere in Northern Italy, a young man is about to come of age. Like most 17-year-old boys, the boredom of day-in, day-out routine is about to be replaced by something new, something extraordinary. Sex, naturally. And like the multitudes … Continue reading CALL ME BY YOUR NAME
Michael J. Cinema 