I’ve had an interesting relationship with The Hunger Games film series. The first (and titular) entry caught my attention for bringing Suzanne Collins’ dystopian world to such initially vibrant life, but director Gary Ross’ shaky camerawork kept me from lauding the film too heavily. Francis Lawrence took up the directing reigns afterward, and crafted Catching Fire into a […]
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1
I didn’t know how to react to Mockingjay – Part 1. I remember feeling strangely ambivalent. I was entirely unmoved for the two hours I spent in the theater. After thinking about the film for a week or so, I realize that I felt cheated. This is because Mockingjay, Part 1 isn’t a movie; it’s a glorified advertisement for […]
The Lego Movie
Style is so often substituted for substance in film that seeing something as synergistic as The Lego Movie is truly marvelous, and even more of a joy to look back on. Writer-directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller have built a multifaceted, visually stunning film. The Lego Movie is at once a brilliantly subversive satire, a heartfelt ode to […]
Movie 43
I decided to incur the wrath of the internet today. I have never been interested in contrarianism for its own sake; I have never defended or criticized a film that I didn’t feel strongly about. It is with this outlook that I say Movie 43, a sketch film that has earned universal derision from the […]
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
The first Hunger Games movie pissed me off. It feels like that playing in free bet websites is more worth my time than watching that movie. Series author Suzanne Collins helped pen the film’s script herself, but the adaptation was troublingly devoid of the substance that made the book so great. Perhaps the best thing […]
