For their 141st episode, two classical film critics, two chain-smoking dads, and two rapturous teachers, Will Johnson and Don Shanahan, stay in the Netflix stream and step up from last week's Zack Snyder crap to an Oscar contender of pedigree. This week, we talk about Maestro, written, directed, produced, and starring Bradley Cooper. Don was able to share has Hollywood access to the film as the guys compare the film's chances for appreciation and Oscars.
Read MoreSociety of the Snow is what this writer calls a “thank your lucky stars” movie. It depicts the kind of true story experience that is frighteningly unfathomable to comprehend. You watch it constantly trying to determine what you would do in the characters’ places and reach an overwrought point where all you can do is, hence the nickname, “thank your lucky stars” you didn’t have to go through what you saw on-screen echoing history. The survival you watch fuels and trumps your own.
Read MoreTo say Bradley Cooper threw himself into his work is an understatement. He is a marvel to behold. The actor was operating with a spot-on imitation of Bernstein’s vocal annunciations, inflections, cadence, and tone. He found all the highs and lows of hubris, profundity, stress, dedication, and talent in front of and behind the camera. Is all of this in Maestro ostentatious hopscotch from Cooper? Probably, but what else would you expect from an energy like working at an insanely masterful level?
Read MoreAmong his peers and contemporaries, David Fincher conveys a commanding control of fluidity that few filmmakers can rival in this day and age. His stringent melding of staging, cinematography, performance outcomes, editing, and music rarely, if ever, stumble or loiter. Fincher’s mise-en-scène is an authority of total precision, arguably second to none. He simply doesn’t miss his marks, which makes The Killer and its propulsive narrative about a rare and fatal mistake so much more fascinating.
Read MoreTrue to the sharp storytelling adage of “show, don’t tell,” Fair Play from writer-director Chloe Domont heightens its drama with these featured stares because you imagine the thoughts or predicted words before they are performed. Oftentimes, a viewer’s imagination can get riled up even worse than what is shown on-screen. The wallop of that effect is the characters will get their releases, retorts, and replies, but the audience members– short of shouting at the screen or clutching their armchair partner– do not. With sly effectiveness in hanging on every stare between the words, that’s how a movie like Fair Play gets you.
Read MoreNetflix has become synonymous with quality entertainment, and their catalog of films only gets more impressive each year. So for those searching for the newest additions to Netflix’s ever-growing library, here are some of the latest movies it has to offer in 2023.
Read MoreFrom Spencer Tracy and Sidney Poiter, forward to Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro, and even to the likes of Ashton Kutcher and Bernie Mac, you’ve seen the interesting proposition of You People and its kind of entertaining clash before. Though it was made in 2021 and bears the label of 2023, You People is about a decade late to its own civics rally. The topicality has come and gone. Kenya Barris’s film arrives almost immediately wrapped in a time capsule, one that few will meaningfully open in years to come without more significance to recognize and remember.
Read MoreDeep down, all movies are passion projects for the people that make them. Sometimes, it is difficult to see that passion come through fully in the finished film. Uninspired moments, pretentious indulgences, shortcuts of effort, or even the limits of ambition will dilute the fervor of how the given movie came to exist. To that end, the rarer feat is a film that never, even for a second, loses or runs out of its passion. S.S. Rajamouli’s RRR is one of those special movies.
Read MoreSex sold then and it still does now. Go ahead and say it. D.H. Lawrence rolled in the hay so the likes of E.L. James could bang on posh furniture. Even so, both authors love that touchy-feely F-word. Watching an enlivened adaptation of Lawrence’s firebrand prose today– debuting on Netflix December 2nd and directed by The Mustang’s Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre– reminds us that sexual awakenings are still valuable, and, best of all, desirable.
Read MoreThe controversial new film Blonde swirls surreal cinematic brushstrokes meant to express the hushed nightmares beyond the celebrity dreams of Norma Jean Mortenson and compose a reminiscent and heartbreaking portrait of the legendary star. The audiences’ applause of adoration is replaced by cries of anguish and pain often unseen by anyone. It is those tears that paint this film. For better or worse, those tears are what you now remember more than the smiles when it comes to Marilyn Monroe.
Read MoreIan Simmons of the Kicking the Seat podcast and YouTube channel recently celebrated his 800th show and I was lucky enough to be invited to join the party. Also flanked by Ian’s longtime top wingman David Fowlie of Keeping it Reel and Mark Krawczyk of Special Mark Productions, Ian picked a special movie for the occasion, a film he calls straightaway his favorite of 2022 so far: Netflix’s international smash hit action film RRR. The appreciation for both the movie and all things Kicking the Seat was shared across the roundtable and by, what turned out to be, thousands of streaming views.
Read MoreFor their 72nd episode, two fed-up film critics, explosive dads, and stuntman school teachers Will Johnson and Don Shanahan got to have a full circle moment with the Russo brothers. Their follow-up to Cherry, on the first Cinephile Hissy Fit shows, is the new Netflix assassin action movie The Gray Man. Because both of our hosts like this movie against the norm, this episode spurred a detour into the current state of film criticism and whether or not critics can recognize or have fun anymore.
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