What a spectacular missed opportunity Chris McKay’s Renfield is. The screenplay by Ryan Ridley, based on a story from The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman (that’s a big name to have attached to this project), is hampered by focusing on characters not named Dracula and Renfield. Despite some cleverness in …

Bertrand Tavernier’s In The Electric Mist takes a well-worn formula (small-town Southern cop story) and adds some added weight and levity. Think of it as a John Grisham movie without lawyers and with a pulse. The film is based on the novel In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead by …

Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye immediately establishes the mood and tone of the picture perfectly. It’s a classic Altman sequence that refuses to rush things as we enter this world of updated Raymond Chandler for the 1970s. Elliott Gould’s Philip Marlowe is awoken by his cat at 3 in the …

Kurt Wimmer’s Equilibrium is a curious case. It explores themes of individuality, free will, and the power of human emotion. It’s a bit of a jumbled mess and sloppy at times, but some good action scenes and a few thought-provoking ideas are also interspersed. Roger Ebert wrote, “Equilibrium would be …

Introducing, Another Look:  Instead of doing another Unsung Cinema, I’ve launched another series of articles tentatively titled Another Look. These are for films I watch that doesn’t fit the Unsung Cinema category, especially a movie like Sexy Beast. Sure, you could argue that it is unsung, and in some ways, …

Some movies, as they say, are right up your alley, and Gregor Jordan’s Buffalo Soldiers is an example of a film that exudes a mood that I identify with. Notably, in this case, a somewhat cynical outlook on life in general. Buffalo Soldiers is different from many Army movies because …

I always preach that the first responsibility of a movie dealing with historical subjects is to be dramatically compelling. You don’t go to the film to get an entirely historically accurate depiction; you want to, first and foremost, be entertained. To be entertained and enlightened. That’s why we go to …

I am not a fan of Dungeons & Dragons. I’ve never played the game, not even once. I’ve certainly heard of it and have seen people playing it; I know it occupies a special place in many people’s hearts, especially before using a personal computer. I’m just not one of …

“Baseball is made for kids. Grownups only screw it up.” – Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Lemon This quote is the thesis of Andrew Scheinman’s Little Big League, a fantastic and intelligent baseball movie buried beneath the surge of kids sports movies in the 1990s. In particular, baseball movies were …

“I was worried that a wild-eyed director would get a hold of this material and sensationalize it just to shock people. And that, to me, wouldn’t do the script justice. My vision of this story has always been the idea that it is a very edgy script that pushes a …