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OPPENHEIMER

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  (source: Universal) Personally speaking, it’s both odd and worrying to realize that I’ve enjoyed Christopher Nolan’s last two films much more on a television than on a (very) big screen. My initial response to Dunkirk was that it was over-produced, and that Tenet just seemed at times arrogant. I reconciled myself with both those films in the comfort of my own home but it led to me briefly wondering: am I in fact excited for a new Nolan cinema experience? Yes. Of course I am. Even before the film, in the hours leading up to the evening of July 21 st , I found myself near giddy at the three hours yet to come – and then, I watched it. Long story short, I don’t regret prioritizing this over Barbie (at least, not yet). In an opening weekend that will in years to come be spoken about like a cultural pilgrimage, Oppenheimer is debuting alongside Greta Gerwig’s subversive, mega-pink beacon of hope. It therefore seems a little wasteful to label THIS film as maximalist. Maybe, it’s more a
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Top Ten Films of the Year: 2020

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  Choosing my top ten films of the year is simultaneously one of my favorite and most-dreaded acts of the year. As the months tick by I compose rough drafts, quarterly rankings and go into every single film wondering, “Will this be top ten-worthy?”… and then December hits, where procrastination kicks in to such a degree that last year, I didn’t even write the intended blog post at the end of it all. These lists have always been exclusively cinematic – after all, the majority of my film watching takes places in a darkened hall (see: my famous (?) race to 100 from two years ago). This has meant that certain titles have missed out, including but my all-time favorite film Moneyball and countless others that I have “had” to excude due to this strict rule-keeping. Of course, for reasons unfortunately now familiar, such cinematic indulgence was not possible this year. Don’t get me wrong, I still managed to collect 31 tickets, but due to being locked at home like so much of the world thi
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The Mandalorian Chapter 13: The Jedi Review

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  ALERT: if spoilers and reverence for the various works of Dave Filoni isn’t your thing, then turn away now. Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka Tano. That's it, that's the caption (source: Lucasfilm) I’ll admit that it was only between the Rebels episodes Twilight of the Apprentice and the recent finale of The Clone Wars that I started to really appreciate Ahsoka Tano. It would be ignorant – reckless, even – to pretend that, in 2008, I was not among the countless viewers that wrote off the brattish then-Padawan in her earliest appearances. Those rainy Saturday nights at the start of autumn over a decade ago do not necessarily equate to some of my favorite Star Wars memories. However, almost singularly due to the nuance and commitment of Dave Filoni, throughout this calendar year in particular, to borrow the modern parlance I am here for Ahsoka Tano. Unlike so many episodes of The Mandalorian and long form television in general, in particularly important instances the temptation is
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Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian Review

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 (A version of this article originally appeared on kernelnow.com / mynewslike.com) Pedro Pascal stars as the titular The Mandalorian - but not necessarily in its docuseries here (source: dtcimedia) If there’s one thing agreed upon about the endlessly-debated Star Wars: The Last Jedi , it’s that the accompanying documentary The Director and the Jedi on the film’s home release ranks among the all-time greatest makings-of. Rivalling legendary precursors such as Hearts of Darkness ( Apocalypse Now ) and Dangerous Days ( Blade Runner ) not just in length but in scope, the feature-length exposé followed the blockbuster production from project inception to release. Unsurprisingly, Disney would leap upon the success of the documentary and attempt to replicate it; the franchise’s very next film, The Rise of Skywalker , would have its own two-hour supplement in The Skywalker Legacy , and streaming service Disney+ has announced the upcoming Into The Unknown , a series examining the making o
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7500 Review

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 (A version of this article originally appeared on kernelnow.com / mynewslike.com) Travelling via aircraft should be a simple experience. Whether boarding for business, pleasure or just to get home, the flight itself should be the least memorable part of a journey. But what if your straightforward transit quickly turned to terror? That’s the question rooted in Patrick Vollrath’s 7500 , which sees terrorists hijacking a pan-European flight from Berlin to Paris. After the stabbing of the plane’s captain, co-pilot Tobias Ellis (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) attempts to bring the craft to safety whilst also trying to maintain the safety of those on board – including his partner, air hostess Gökce (Aylin Tezel). Physical injury is the least of Tobias’s worries in one of Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s tensest roles (source: Amazon Studios) After a lengthy opening prologue which does well to replicate the terminable boredom of boarding a flight for passengers and crew alike, the film wastes lit
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The King of Staten Island Review

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 (A version of this article originally appeared on kernelnow.com / mynewslike.com) Amongst the many traits common in Judd Apatow’s work is a penchant for taking aspiring comedians and launching their film careers – occasionally, all the way to superstardom. With his latest release The King of Staten Island , Apatow may well have done so again with Pete Davidson. This is the story of Scott (Davidson), a 24 year-old who outside of a barely-developed dream to be a tattoo artist has little in the way of life goals. In a state of arrested development and fighting a range of afflictions from ADD to depression rooted and amplified by the tragic long-ago death of his firefighter father, Scott lives at home and mainly just gets high with his similarly indifferent friends. Things change, however, when his mother Margie (Marisa Tomei) begins her first serious relationship since the death of her husband with – much to Scott’s horror – another firefighter, Ray (Bill Burr). After h
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The Films of Judd Apatow – Ranked!

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 (A version of this article originally appeared on kernelnow.com / mynewslike.com) In the fifteen years since his big-screen debut, director Judd Apatow’s name has become synonymous with modern comedy, arguably crossing over to become one of the most familiar names in all of cinema. Now,on the cusp of the release of his latest film The King of Staten Island, it seems like a good time to rank the famed film-maker’s back catalogue. Of course, his name is well-known for so many reasons more than the five films we’re about to look at below, having turned his hand as a producer, screenwriter and even documentarian . However, for the purposes of this article, we’ll be looking at the feature films that, like his upcoming video-on-demand outing, are listed as having been directed by Apatow – both to keep things at a manageable length, and to give all films not named Superbad a fighting chance at the top spot.  5. This is 40 (2013) Maude and Iris (left), Judd Apatow’s children, ha
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