80s movies
Movie Review: The Long Walk
4 stars out of 5 I approve of Stephen King as an author and as a human being, but as I covered in my review of IT, I’ve never read his stuff or even seen most of the movies based on it. Which made The Long Walk another total surprise for me. The trailer really […]
Movie Review: Spinal Tap II — The End Continues
3.5 stars out of 5 Upon re-watching 1984’s This Is Spinal Tap early in the pandemic, I rated it 10 out of 10 on IMDb, and if the scale allowed me, would’ve gone to 11. I was 15 years old when the movie first came out and it was a perfect blend of smart and […]
Movie Review: The Naked Gun
4 stars out of 5The six episodes of Police Squad! that aired when I was 12-going-on-13 couldn’t have been a better bar mitzvah gift. Sure, I had loved the same filmmakers’ Airplane! when I was 11, but now I was a sophisticated tween (though the word hadn’t been coined yet). So, I understood more of […]
Movie Review: Megalopolis
4 stars out of 5 It’s not too often that an 85-year-old throws me off my game. But when the octogenarian in question is Francis Ford Coppola, perhaps I shouldn’t be too surprised. He has perhaps the greatest résumé of any filmmaker, living or otherwise: The Godfather, Godfather II, Apocalypse Now, The Conversation, and not […]
Movie Review: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
4.5 stars out of 5 Pee-wee put Tim Burton on the map, but it was 1988’s Beetlejuice that really established his reputation as a master macabre mischief-maker. Yes, he’s occasionally strayed from the darkness since — Big Fish, Big Eyes, Dumbo, etc. — but like the band Garbage, Burton is really only happy when it […]
Movie Review: Alien — Romulus
4 stars out of 5 I was 10 when the original Alien came out so didn’t see it at the time, but even the poster was scary. Since then I think I only skipped part 4, despite the presence of Winona Ryder. So it was no surprise on an overcast late summer afternoon to find […]
Movie Review: Ghostbusters — Frozen Empire
3.5 stars out of 5I have gone on record more than once declaring that bustin’ makes me feel good. Aided by a generous dose of nostalgia, Ghostbusters: Afterlife even snuck onto my top-10 films of 2022. And yet, I did not rush to the theater to see this follow-up. Why not? Was some mysterious paranormal […]
Movie Review: May December
4.5 stars out of 5 I have gone on record as being a big fan of both Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman (who once guest-edited an issue of my magazine). For Todd Haynes, I had to play a little catch-up, but he’s become one of my favorite directors. So I had high expectation for this […]
Movie Review: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
4 stars out of 5 I was 12 when Raiders of the Lost Ark came out, and the lost ark of the Covenant was mentioned in the Haftorah portion at my bar mitzvah. Needless to say, I have an awful of lot of emotional energy invested in the character of Indiana Jones. And though hard […]
Movie Review: Sanctuary
3 stars out of 5 Last time I wrote about a French thriller, and because I’m a goofball, I nearly made a joke about French ticklers — but ultimately thought the better of it. Sanctuary, however, could use a tickler or two to spice things up. I have been a fan of Margaret Qualley since […]
Jack Silbert, curator