Discussing "The Christophers" on Filmspotting

Scientification! "Amazing Stories" at 100 on All Things Condered

The prose version is here.

The Torturned Seamstresses Department: "Mother Mary," reviewed.

Michaela Coel is working with phantom thread in Mother Mary. (Frederic Batier / A24)

It wouldn’t be right to say Coel acts rings around Hathaway in the title role, but their dynamic certainly leaves no question about which performer’s career is on the ascent. Coel is just as compelling holding her own against Ian McKellen in “The Christophers,” a contemporaneous release where she plays a similar part: an assistant/creative partner to an artist who has fallen on hard times. But “Mother Mary” reverses the polarity of that film: Here, she’s the one who gets most of the big speeches, while Hathaway’s performance consists largely of nonverbal reactions and then line readings choked out through tears. She’s always been one of cinema’s great cryers.

My Washington City Paper review of David Lowery’s Mother Mary is here.

Minnesota Nice: "Normal," reviewed

My Washington City Paper review of Normal, a Bob Odenkirk-headlined action movie — what a strange phrase — is here. You can also hear me discuss the movie with pals Glen Weldon and Ronald Young, Jr. on Pop Culture Happy Hour below.

Rom Dot Com: "You, Me & Tuscany," reviewed.

Regé-Jean Page and Halle Bailey spill the wine. (Universal)

Since la famiglia is both credulous and progressive to a credulity-straining degree, Anna’s big lie becomes a problem only once it turns out that Page’s Michael, whom she’s already met-cute, is Matteo’s adopted brother. How will she sustain the ruse of being promised to that narcoleptic Matteo when Michael is just standing there, usually with a bottle of his own wine, often without a shirt, fairly begging to be ridden like a Level airlines flight from JFK to Florence with a 6.5-hour layover in Barcelona? (This was the only New York-to-Italy itinerary I could find in Anna’s price range.) 

My Washington City Paper review of You, Me & Tuscany is here.

The Life of Chuck (Norris)

The latest target to get its ass roundly kicked by Chuck Norris, despite / because of the fact he passed away last week? My weekend. I did some light Chuckery for The Atlantic, a marvelous publication that hadn’t published me in a little more than a decade.

Someday I’ll find a home for the piece this one kept trying to turn into, about how director Andrew Davis made three Chicago-based action movies in eight years, starring, in order, Norris, Steven Seagal, and Harrison Ford — and a remarkable number of the same, Chicago-based supporting players.

"Project Hail Mary," reviewed.

School is in. (MGM / Amazon)

Project Hail Mary, the adaptation of Andy Weir’s sci-fi novel from directors Chris Lord & Phil Miller, feels like a cuddlier version of Danny Boyle’s underseen Sunshine, or the version of Interstellar that Steven Spielberg was briefly going to make. My Washington City Paper review is here.

Reacher versus the Cybertruck: "War Machine," reviewed.

This isn’t the type of film where you’d recall the names of any characters anyway, but because it’s set during Ranger selection, most of the characters have no names, just numbers. Ritchson is No. 81. James is No. 7. Millie Bobby Bongiovi née Brown is … not involved in this Netflix project.

My Vulture review of the latest Netflix movie to carry the title War Machine is here.