Time for Carrousel: Logan, reviewed

The family that hides together, abides together. Dafne Keen, Patrick Stewart, and Hugh Jackman in Logan. (Fox)

I'm looking forward to the argument we're going to have over beers, you and I, about whether Logan is the best comic book movie since The Dark Knight or the best Western since No Country for Old Men. 

Here's my NPR review, where I ran out of space to cite all the things I loved about this movie (Eriq La Salle! Autotrucks!), or to warn you that if you know you will recoil from the sight of an 11-year-old girl defending her life with lethal force, you should skip it. And it would probably be more correct to call it the Rocky Balboa of Rocky movies than the Creed of Rocky movies, but sometimes clarity is more important than pinpoint accuracy.

Bring tissues.

The Game-Over Man: Remembering Bill Paxton, 1955-2017

Paxton helps Tom Cruise through a very bad day in 2014's Edge of Tomorrow. (Warner Bros.)

For NPR, I wrote this fond remembrance of the actor Bill Paxton, a man who lived but one colorful life but who died onscreen an absurd stupid lot of times, in some of my all-time favorite film. He was in great big movies like Aliens and Titanic, he was in not-great big movies like Twister, he was great in little movies like One False Move and Traveler and A Simple Plan. He was great, basically.

I strongly endorse the episode of WTF with Marc Maron on which Paxton appeared only three weeks ago. He spoke at least as much about his upbringing in Texas as about his 40-year career in movies, but it was a wonderful interview, warm and revealing. But please read my piece, too. I literally ripped a sleeve from emphatic typing while working on it.

Here's one of his monologues as PFC Hudson, deleted from ALIENS' 1986 theatrical release but restored in the home video "special edition" some years later. We'll miss you, Bill.

Get Up, Get into It, Get Involved: Get Out, reviewed.

Daniel Kaluuya stars in Jordan Peele's feature filmmaking debut. (Universal)

Jordan Peele's terrific new horror flick Get Out is many things, but it parody it is not. My NPR review is here.

Visions of Diana: King Charles III and I Wanna Fucking Tear You Apart, reviewed.

I'm putting y'all on notice: My reviews of King Charles III—Mike Bartlett's marvelous blank verse political drama at the Shakespeare Theatre—and Studio Theatre's world premiere production of Morgan Gould's I Wanna Fucking Tear You Apart are in this week's Washington City Paper.

Storm Front: Baby Screams Miracle, reviewed.

Kate Eastwood Norris and Cody Nickell pray together. (Scott Suchman/Woolly Mammoth)

On Baby Screams Miracle, a 2013 play by Clare Barron at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, directed by Woolly founder Howard Shalwitz.

When you unload into the Abyss... John Wick: Chapter 2, reviewed.

Keanu's taxi-hailing game isn't much better than yours. (Lionsgate)

Wherein I hail John Wick: Chapter 2 as the "face-shooting revenge flick Frederico Fellini never got to make." For NPR.

Period Piece: On Theatre J's The How and the Why

Valerie Leonard and Katie deBuys are evolutionary biologists in Sarah Treem's play. (Theater J)

Here's a little preview I wrote for Theater J's imminent production of The How and the Why, a play about dueling evolutionary theories regarding menstruation from The Affair showrunner Sarah Treem.  It's in today's Washington City Paper.

What Happens in Orlando Stays in Orlando: As You Like It, reviewed.

Lindsay Alexandra Carter and Antoinette Robinson as Rosalind and Celia, respectively.

As You Like It is my favorite Shakespearean comedy after Twelfth Night, but when the actor playing Orlando can't hang with the actor playing Rosalind, it prevents this pleasant diversion from being something deeper. I reviewed the Folger Theatre's production in this week's Washington City Paper.