Hollywood is a place where people who should fail, don’t. It’s where people who deserve to have long careers crash and burn. Earlier this year, Michael Mann’s film Blackhat was released, and it flopped big-time. The man who made amazing films like Heat, The Insider and Collateral, has seemingly lost his touch. Can he regain his mojo? Hopefully. Now that strange malady has afflicted Cameron Crowe with the execrable Aloha, but in this case, his career may be terminal. That’s a shame. See, Crowe occupies an interesting filmmaking niche. He’s not a soulless journeyman... Read More

Most films have flaws, that’s a given. But there are a few of them out there that are perfect. So much so that you can’t imagine cutting a scene, or removing a performance. They tell their story correctly, with intelligence, style and honesty.  Goodfellas is perfect. No Country For Old Men is perfect. The Silence Of The Lambs is perfect. The Princess Bride is perfect. Mad Max: Fury Road is perfect. By all rights, it shouldn’t be. It’s the fourth film in a franchise, which is often the point where the filmmakers desperately hope somebody, anybody, sees it before... Read More

Alice (Kristen Wiig) has a prepared statement. She also has Borderline Personality Disorder, a mental illness that has robbed her of nearly everything in her life. She’s lost her job as a veterinary technician, her ex-husband has come out, and her daily routine has shrunk. She lives in a small apartment and endlessly re-watches episodes of Oprah, so much so that she knows them by heart. Alice repeats Oprah’s mantras about self-actualization, but it all feels hollow. Alice also buys a lottery ticket every day. One day, she wins the lottery. Now she has $86 million dollars, and she’s... Read More

  In 2008, the fledgling Marvel Studios released Iron Man, starring Robert Downey Jr. Before the release, there were rumblings that the film would fail, and fail big. How could it succeed? It was a movie about a superhero that only hardcore nerds like me had heard of. Plus, Downey was best known not as a phenomenally talented actor, but as a drug addict. The guy was a huge risk to headline a summer blockbuster. But with a worldwide gross of over $580 million, Iron Man was a gigantic hit, and it guaranteed two things. First, it created the birth of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) which... Read More

In 1923, the New York Times interviewed famed mountaineer George Mallory. When he was asked why he wanted to climb Mount Everest, he simply replied, “Because it’s there.” I suspect the same sentiment could apply to the Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerbergs of the world, the blazingly intelligent innovators that develop technologies that shift civilization. It’s definitely applicable to Nathan (Oscar Isaac), the reclusive supergenius behind Blue Book, an omnipresent search engine. Using his massive wealth and influence, he stages an employee lottery. Caleb (Domhnall Gleason) is... Read More