Film Features

“There’s a kind of love you share with your best friend(s) that’s not quite romance but is a deeper connection than you have with anyone else. It’s a sort of romantic love where you’d rather be with this person than anyone else. Something that’s not nearly celebrated enough, but should be,” writes Sabrina Cognata.

Our first series of brief reviews of the Oscar-nominated shorts currently playing in 200 theaters across the country before Oscar night on March 4.

Having more immediate success with its Emmy-winning television series, many in their third, fourth and fifth seasons, will Netflix’s decision to release so much content on a weekly basis end up hurting the brand?

“According to the [Jean-Pierre Jeunet], Guillermo Del Toro’s brilliant tour de force that is The Shape of Water — my favorite film this year and, it would appear, the prime Oscar frontrunner — contains a blatant rip-off of Jeunet’s work, and it’s all trés scandaleux,” writes Neil Turitz.

The filmmaker behind Listen Up, Phillip and Queen of Earth returns with his fifth feature as director and two upcoming films as a screenwriter.

Between his fatherly roles on Frasier and in Say Anything…, the beloved character actor was a true heavyweight even though he never played one himself, writes Neil Turitz.

Here are 101 female and POC directors that Lucasfilm should love to work with and start whittling through to bring the diversity to the directors’ chair and, with them, the stories they want to tell.

Sabrina Cognata takes a look back at the film, starring the mascots for feminism in the late 90’s, and finds a film that may actually have been more accepting of women’s flaws than films today.

Regardless of whether Paramount or Netflix releases the film, Super Bowl Sunday would be a great time to get our first look at the hush-hush new Cloverfield movie, wouldn’t you agree?

The Australian filmmaker returns with two very different movies, one a period spy-thriller starring Paul Rudd as Moe Berg, the other a more contemporary dramedy starring Dakota Fanning. The latter is now in theaters and On Demand.

“An industry that is struggling to survive needs to start embracing multiculturalism the way it’s now attempting to embrace gender equality,” writes Neil Turitz.

The Netflix movie tells the story of National Lampoon co-founder Doug Kenney (Will Forte), following the success of the magazine and how that transitioned into making movies like Animal House.

“I am all for the #MeToo movement, and firmly believe that it’s long overdue, but when the awards that are supposed to be about the films and the artists who make them instead become about other things entirely, then we’re losing something in the process,” writes Neil Turitz.

“The three big companies being bandied about are the reconstituted CBS-Viacom, Verizon, and Amazon. Each has its pros and cons, but to me, only one of them is truly the right fit. So let’s take a look at each and examine why they are or are not Cinderella’s slipper,” writes Neil Turitz.

Maggie Gyllenhaal, Rose Byrne and Carey Mulligan drive The Kindergarten Teacher, Juliet, Naked and Paul Dano’s Wildlife to very different places.

“When people say #MeToo movement threatens ‘Sexy Hollywood Movies’ it really threatens the broad spectrum of what sexy can be,” writes Sabrina Cognata.

The co-creator of Crank and a director on the popular new Syfy show Happy! tells us what it takes to put together a movie with a premise that’s not the easiest to finance. Plus getting the most “crazy Nick” out of Nicolas Cage after working together on Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.

A few somewhat scattered thoughts on the box office blockbuster that somehow cracked the code for making a movie that appeals to gamers without having a real video game as its basis.

Saturday Night Fever celebrated its 40th anniversary last month and while the film is considered iconic, it’s storyline may be much more problematic than viewers may recall. Sabrina Cognata takes a look at the movie that made John Travolta a star and its darker, cultural impact.

Black plays bandleader Jan Dewan, the “Polka King of Pennsylvania,” who conned his fans out of millions of dollars before being arrested for creating a Ponzi scheme. The film is currently streaming on Netflix.

How their earlier thriller Non-Stop led to them making another transportation thriller, and why Disney’s Jungle Cruise starring Dwayne Johnson is actually very different from Jumanji.

“As many new subscribers might have signed up for Netflix to watch Bright, and who might now stick around and become paying customers, more money would be made by putting its sequel into theaters either as part of a day-and-date release, or three works before releasing it on the streaming service,” writes Neil Turitz.

In the past couple years, making sequels years even decades after their popular predecessors has proven to be folly for anyone involved. And yet, 2018 offers more than a couple sequels being released an insanely long time after the original movies.

“There is a case to be made that movie studios should be decried for trying to profit off of real-life tragedies, but movies and television shows based on devastating true events have been a mainstay of pop culture for 100 years. You wouldn’t tell Steven Spielberg not to make Schindler’s List, or Paul Greengrass not to make United 93, would you?

The first real sleeper of early 2018 may be Clint Eastwood’s thriller The 15:17 to Paris, which chronicles the true story of three American soldiers who prevented a terrorist attack on a train. The best part? The main roles are filled by the real heroes, playing themselves. The question is whether real heroes can compete with superheroes at the box office.

“Some of my favorite filmmakers made the list this year, and in every case, it feels like people working in personal mode, even if they’re working in the most mainstream of possible modes. When I think of 2017 in the future… if there is one… then these are the films that will most directly connect me to who I was at this moment in time.”

Jeff Sneider offers 18 things to look forward to on Netflix in 2018, including comedy specials from Chris Rock and Ali Wong, a new sci-fi movie from Duncan Jones, and an anthology series from the Coen brothers.

The Italian filmmaker who first received international attention for 2010’s I Am Love with Tilda Swinton, tackles André Aciman’s novel, working from a script by James Ivory.

Blumhouse’s slasher movie Happy Death Day joins awards favorites such as Steven Spielberg’s The Post, Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water and the “beautiful” Call Me by Your Name.

The Tracking Board’s East Coast Editor offers a somewhat unconventional year-end Top 10 of the films he enjoyed most, including a couple docs.