10s movies
Movie Review: Thoroughbreds
2.5 stars out of 5 It comes up lame. There, I got it out of the way right off the bat. Whew. I like thrillers, I like mean girls, the trailer was fun, the cystic-fibrosis girl from Bates Motel is in this, and Unsane and Isle of Dogs weren’t out yet, so on cheap Tuesday […]
Movie Review: Annihilation
4.5 stars out of 5 Last summer, my friend Julie recommended the Southern Reach trilogy of novels by Jeff VanderMeer. I put them on my Amazon shopping list but never got around to making the purchase. And the books slipped my mind until, well into watching this truly impressive film, I suddenly thought, “Hey, one […]
Movie Review: Black Panther
4 stars out of 5 I’d heard of Black Panther during my comic-book reading days, but he wasn’t really a big deal back then. Besides, Luke Cage was my black superhero — come on, the guy had a belt made out of a chain! But with everybody in the world saying how great this movie […]
Movie Review: Darkest Hour
3.5 stars out of 5 On a few occasions at my old job, I’d fly into St. Louis and then make the long, lonely drive to Jefferson City. Each time, I’d pass the exit for the National Winston Churchill Museum, which struck me as pretty random in the middle of Nowhere, Missouri. (They didn’t even […]
Movie Review: Phantom Thread
4 stars out of 5 Upon first seeing the trailer, I must admit I wasn’t too excited to see this. I often avoid period pieces — and I had no idea when this was set; upper-class England could be the 19th, 20th, or 21st century — and as anyone who’s ever looked at me could […]
Movie Review: The Commuter
1 star out of 5 The warning signs were all there. It’s a January release (as with the end of summer, a traditional dumping ground for shitty movies). The poster proclaimed, “From the director of The Shallows [which I awarded 2.5 stars] and Non-Stop [1.5 stars].” And it stars Liam “Anything for a Buck” Neeson, […]
My Highly Subjective List of the Best Movies of 2017
In my first talk with Joe Reda, the prosthetist at the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in Saddle Brook, New Jersey, he asked about my goals. One of very few that I mentioned, back in December 2016, was regaining the ability to walk to my local movie theater. I achieved that goal by the spring, and […]
Movie Review: The Disaster Artist
3.5 stars out of 5 Back when I was urging everyone to see the movie Room, a couple of friends were singing the praises of the cult hit The Room. Well, I finally saw The Room (thanks Stephen) and… it is very bad; it is an odd, strangely compelling viewing experience; but… we live in […]
Jack Silbert, curator