I recently had the opportunity to review an interesting doc entitled Hail Satan?. While the movie certainly grapples with important and timely themes, it is unfortunately a cursory look at the sick, hypocritical way that the Christian right has become embedded in American political life. Enjoy it all on FilmMonthly! Full Review
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A Collection of Recent Reviews
Anyone who knows me well knows that I have largely retired from the film reviewing game. While it once served as my central writing focus, and, in fact, probably turned me into the writer I am today, I no longer find it to be my primary interest. Instead, I now plunk away mostly in the…Read more A Collection of Recent Reviews
Film Review: Stromboli (1950)
With the War Trilogy behind him, the esteemed Roberto Rossellini moved himself out of the grime and the gloom of the war-torn European mainland with 1950's Stromboli. This would be the first film that the Italian heavyweight would make with the too-beautiful-for-words Ingrid Bergman. In Stromboli the actress plays Karin, a woman from Lithuania who…Read more Film Review: Stromboli (1950)
You Have to Lose Yourself in People: On the Anti-porn Agenda and Myopic Gaze of Don Jon
Joesph Gordon Levitt is an enormously accomplished actor, that much seems certain. He is natural and assured whether he is appearing in the monstrous epics of Christopher Nolan or in small indies, such as Brick or Mysterious Skin. His new film and directorial debut Don Jon is similarly confident, parsing the different ways that one's…Read more You Have to Lose Yourself in People: On the Anti-porn Agenda and Myopic Gaze of Don Jon
Film Review: Gravity (2013)
A heartbreaking fact about the past seven years of cinema has been the deep void left by Alfonso Cauron, who had last surfaced with one of the best films of 2006, Children of Men. Cauron finally returned to the silver screen this year is with another massive cinematic vehicle and has received an inordinate amount…Read more Film Review: Gravity (2013)
Film Review: Prisoners (2013)
Prisoners is set in a economically depressed small-town suffering from barely hidden villainy. It's a chilly, nihilistic film, standing out even in a year filled with pessimism. Most of this you've seen before and most of it (particularly the ending) feels a tad preposterous. Additionally, the film falters because it can't decide on how best…Read more Film Review: Prisoners (2013)
Film Review: Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Almost nine years have come and gone since that fateful Oscar night, when a craggy, faded movie star named Jack Nicholson cracked open one of those inimitable envelopes and fell back, shocked, gasping with disbelief that a movie nobody really liked had won the biggest prize in movies. “CRASH!” the man gasped, much to the jubilation of…Read more Film Review: Brokeback Mountain (2005)
“A Man Can Run Out of Things to Live For” – On the Ethos of Superhero Film Love Interests
Wolverine has always been a tormented soul, a social pariah damned by his stunted aging and propensity for berserker rage. He is a character with meat on his bones and certainly one of the richer creations in the X-Men pantheon. Of course, much of that complexity has never been effectively addressed in the various film…Read more “A Man Can Run Out of Things to Live For” – On the Ethos of Superhero Film Love Interests
Rooting the Future Jargon of Clockworks and Dark Knights: Slang in Society
The dystopian universes of Anthony Burgess's novel A Clockwork Orange, and Frank Miller's seminal 1986 graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns, are marked by many thematic similarities. They both focus on pervasive corruption in society's political and social institutions. Additionally, both stories feature the distinctive presence of various subcultures, marked by not only an habitual…Read more Rooting the Future Jargon of Clockworks and Dark Knights: Slang in Society
Film Review: Nine (2009)
As this decade comes to a close it is interesting to look back upon some of the more significant developments that have occurred inside the film industry. Over the past few years we have experienced the rise of the Apatow comedy, the superhero film genre has infested the marketplace, and the musical regained its commercial footing, starting in 2001 with Baz…Read more Film Review: Nine (2009)
Adam Mohrbacher 