Heat changed a lot of things. Released in 1995, it was a sprawling crime saga pitting obsessive cop Al Pacino against clever thief Robert De Niro. Watching it, you’ll have a lot to enjoy. A ridiculously talented cast. Highly precise action scenes. Existential musings found within a labyrinthine plot. It’s probably the best thing writer/director Michael Mann has ever done. In its DNA, you can see strands of Reservoir Dogs, The Getaway, and Charley Varrick, to name a few. But Heat is the platonic ideal of what the modern heist film should be. We see echoes of it in films like Sicario and... Read More

As I sit here writing this review, my iPhone rests on the desk next to me. It’s become a nearly indispensable feature of my life. I can view my hilariously low bank balance, check the weather, and catch up with friends living on the other side of the continent. I have access to a mind-boggling amount of information, and my iPhone has more computing power than Apollo 13. When I hold it in my hands, it feels comfortable, it feels right. I’m not necessarily sure that’s a good thing. My life was utterly changed by Steve Jobs. So was everybody else’s. The invention of the... Read More

Before I begin the review, I need to explain something. Friendship is a strange thing. I’ve got a good friend named Devila.* We’ve known each other since high school. She’s been there for me through ups and downs and is one of the most fundamentally decent people I’ve ever met. I sincerely love her like a sister. And yet, considering that we have this friendship that spans decades, she still made me see the breathtakingly dumb Insurgent. Insurgent is the second film in the Divergent series inspired by the YA novels of Veronica Roth. The books seem to be a fairly obvious... Read More