Ambitious, smart, funny, outspoken, overbearing, snide, controlling and endearing are just some of the adjectives that define Molly, the main character of “Booksmart.” In the first few minutes of the film, it’s tempting to try to box her into one of the character tropes we’ve seen time and time again in high school movies: she’s…
A cluster of lonely statues stand on a hill in Spain, overlooking a valley. This monument is one of the only memorials in the country commemorating victims of the rule of dictator Francisco Franco. Built just recently, they were shot shortly after completion; through the bullet holes one can catch glimpses of the Spanish countryside.…
Last week, in between all the “Avengers” and “Game of Thrones” mania, the third-highest grossing film of 2019 quietly dropped on Netflix. Making the top three in a year dominated by Iron Man, Captain Marvel and co. is no small achievement. But Disney’s competition at the top isn’t “Shazam!” or “Us” or “Detective Pikachu” –…
To those disillusioned after the 2016 presidential election, “Knock Down the House”, a documentary featuring four women — including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — who ran for public office in 2018, offers a message of hope through the stories of women who fight to improve their broken communities. Directed by Rachel Lears, “Knock Down the House”, released…
This article is continued from Part 1, published yesterday. Steve Rogers is a person characterized by loss. He is a solitary archetype, almost messianic in his charisma, and, as a result, always alone, as sometimes only he can see what others cannot. Evans — when given the good writing with which to do so —…
This article contains spoilers for “Avengers: Endgame.” How dare you call yourself a storyteller if you can’t even deign to care about the story you’re telling. This bout of ire towards shitty writing stems from my building frustration with a lot of modern media — television and popular film particularly — and its recent tendency to sacrifice character for…
When “The Women” was released in 1939, MGM’s publicists went to town. They stressed the novelty of the movie. It boasted an all-female cast. As the publicists noted, the production team went to great lengths to ensure there was no male onscreen. Even the dogs in the film were certifiably female. Despite the preponderance of…
“He didn’t even change his voice,” Ryan Reynolds’s wife complains in one of “Detective Pikachu”’s numerous tongue-in-cheek parody trailers. “It just…sounds like him.” Like the “Deadpool” movies, “Detective Pikachu” is a film where the comedy heartthrob of Hollywood simply plays an exaggerated version of himself. The titular character is brash, spritely and naive, only a…
