Film

April is Amazon pilot season, which is the super secret and strange process by which Amazon lets you watch and vote on the TV pilots they’re considering for a full-season order. While Amazon doesn’t say exactly how influential the voting system is in their decision, or even whether or not…

They all shoulda been like this. Venom. Punisher. Wolverine. Every Marvel antihero of the last however many years shoulda been just like Logan; which is to say uncompromisingly R-rated. Oh, I’m sure some would make a case for Deadpool. But Deadpool is cheeky and lame, and preppy Ryan Reynolds shan’t…

If you like Broadway musicals, murder mysteries or comedy, you might not want to miss A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. The play has been wildly successful and brilliantly reviewed in New York, and from March 7–12, 2017, you’ll have the opportunity to attend and experience the drama for…

John Wick: Chapter 2 is one of the most amazingly violent and gorgeous movies I’ve ever seen. Returning as the title character, Keanu Reeves is a one man tidal wave of death that racks up a body count so high, they may as well have called this film GOP Obamacare…

After watching the trailer for Gold, I couldn’t wait to get to the theater. Matthew McConaughey and Edgar Ramirez seemed to have palpable on-screen chemistry, the film was directed by Stephen Gaghan (Traffic and Syriana) and written by John Zinman and Patrick Massett (known for their incredible work on Friday…

There’s this weird feeling that comes only after walking out of a film “based on actual events.” The actual events inevitably being ones you don’t know all the details of, an inclination exists to take what appears on screen at face value, based off your overall enjoyment level. Captain Phillips,…

Is Mike Judge a filmmaker or some otherworldly seer who can read signs and portents and know what the future holds? Well, he’s most likely just the former, but once you see his 2006 film Idiocracy, you may be convinced he’s the latter. Starring Luke Wilson and Maya Rudolph, Idiocracy…

At it’s best, Other People, the semi-autobiographical directorial debut of SNL writer and Sacramento native Chris Kelly, is a subtly moving portrait of illness and loss as it most often happens in our society: amidst countless distractions and the bittersweet detours of everyday life. As a personal project, it is…

Listen, I know that for some of you this is a hard sell: Damien Chazelle’s first film since 2014’s Whiplash is a bombastic Hollywood musical starring heartthrobs Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone in a wonderfully poetic tribute to Los Angeles, the city Northern Californians love to hate (of course for…

Written by best-selling author David Sedaris, The Santaland Diaries (adapted here by Joe Mantello and directed by Shannon Mahoney) takes a hilarious and sarcastic look at what it’s like to work as an elf at a Macy’s department store during the holidays in New York City. Hint: it’s terribly miserable,…