Doris And The Dudes: Showalter And Linklater Hatch Horny Spring Comedies

We’re living in a wacky movie world these days. The third highest grossing film of this year so far is also one of the biggest disappointments — Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice plummeted in its second and third weekends, so even though the film will gross over $300 million, it’s a domestic disappointment. (Its […]

Not-Oscars 2012: The Year’s Best Performances

(Originally published at JustinPlusSeven on January 10, 2013.) You, dear reader, have the honor of reading this in the future, after the Oscar nominations have been announced. But I am writing from this from the near past, before we know which five contenders are fighting it out in each category. Of course, some are shoo-ins; […]

Top Ten Films: 2012

It’s Oscar time! As usual, the Academy Awards are poised to make some very wrong decisions this year. So as usual, I am prematurely correcting them by releasing my Top Ten of the year. That year is 2012, of course — real film critics release such lists at the end of December or beginning of […]

Abe Is Enough: ‘Lincoln’ Emancipates Spielberg From His Usual Tricks

Four score and seven years ago, it was 1925. That’s not really relevant, but it seems difficult to write a review of Lincoln without including the man’s most famous phrase, even if not that many people even know how many years “four score” is, and even if that’s the least important aspect of his Gettysburg […]

Trailer Trash: Steven Spielberg // ‘Lincoln’

The Oscars are coming! The Oscars are coming!

The Amusing ‘Spider-Man’: Webb Spins Spidey, But Nothing Sticks

Blame Batman, the first superhero movie I ever saw — and perhaps not coincidentally, my favorite. (Paired with its sublime sequel Batman Returns.) Or blame Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, which raised the bar for comic book adaptations — proving they could be artful and commercial at the same time, as well as Oscar contenders. […]