CAPTAIN MARVEL (Dir. by Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck, 124 min., USA, 2019) BY DAN TABOR FILM CRITIC Captain Marvel arrives at an interesting inflection point in the Marvel Comics Universe, preceding the apocalyptic events of Infinity War by decades, while introducing what could possibly be their most powerful superhero yet. The film is directed by the husband/wife team of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, who have a demonstrable knack for complex character building, which is surely why they were chosen to bring Marvel’s first female led superhero film to theaters. Brie Larson was recruited for the title role […]
CINEMA: Q&A With Acclaimed Director Neil Jordan
BY DAN TABOR FILM CRITIC Neil Jordan has been creating thought provoking cinema for decades and last week I got a few moments to chat with the director of such films as Interview With The Vampire, The Crying Game and The Company Of Wolves. His latest film, Greta, which opens today, is a captivating thriller about Frances, a young woman (Chloë Grace Moretz) in New York who befriends an older woman Greta (Isabelle Huppert) when she finds her purse on the subway. As Frances gets to know Greta, we soon find she is not exactly the harmless, little old […]
NPR 4 THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When U Can’t
FRESH AIR: Filmmaker Yoruba Richen’s documentary, The Green Book: Guide to Freedom, tells the story of the manual that helped African-Americans find safe places to stay, eat, shop and do business on the road. MORE JEZEBEL: Once again, the Oscars have awarded a movie about race told from the perspective of a white protagonist, directed and written by white guys. But you don’t have to settle for Green Book. Tonight the Smithsonian Channel will air a documentary about the actual Green Book, which guided black motorists to safe businesses and lodging all over the country in annual installments from 1936 […]
CINEMA: Sim City
ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL (directed by Robert Rodriguez, 122 minutes, USA, 2019) BY DAN TABOR FILM CRITIC If you got into Anime in the 90’s, you were undoubtedly indoctrinated with Yukito Kishiro’s Battle Angel, the bleak cyberpunk love story cribbed in equal parts from Blade Runner and The Terminator. Hollywood’s take on this animated classic hits the big screen this week thanks to Robert Rodriguez (Sin City), who took on the project that has been in gestation under James Cameron (The Terminator/Avatar) for almost two decades, who also penned the script. Alita takes the larger than life worlds Cameron is known […]
CINEMA: Black Mirror
“Hey man, I don’t mind bein’ a vampire and all that shit, but a man has got to see his face!”– Scream Blacula, Scream (1973) BY DAN TABOR FILM CRITIC As a lifelong horror fan, I was humbled by Horror Noire, the dense and informative documentary on the Black Horror film genre, based on the book with the same title by Robin R. Means Coleman. This homegrown project, written and produced in Philadelphia by Stage 3 Productions is masterclass in horror that every genre fan needs to take. While I like to consider myself a fan of black horror […]
GEEK SQUAD: The Birds Of Prey Teaser
The Birds of Prey are an all female superhero team of mostly Gotham (the city where Batman lives) heroes. In addition of Margot Robbie reprising her role as Harley Quinn, the film will feature Jurnett Smollett-Bell (Friday Night Lights, True Blood) as Black Canary, Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, 10 Cloverfield LaneI) as Huntress , Rosie Perez as Renee Montoya, Ella Jay Basco as Cassandra Cain, the Star Wars prequel’s Obi Wan Ewan McGregor as the villain Black Mask, and Chris Messina (The Newsroom, The Mindy Project) as serial killer Victor Zsasz star. Birds of Prey (And […]
CINEMA: Shattered
GLASS (directed by M. Night Shyamlan, 129 minutes, USA, 2019) BY DAN TABOR FILM CRITIC Like most critics and moviegoers, I have a love/meh relationship with M. Night Shyamalan’s body of work. While I enjoyed his last film, 2016’s Split, a genre-bending story of a man with 24 distinct personalities, I didn’t love it until those final moments when Night served up one of his patented pretzel plot twist endings. The big reveal at the end of Split is that the whole time you’ve been watching quasi-sequel to 2000’s Unbreakable, a film that I will argue birthed the superhero […]
CINEMA: Matt Shaver’s Top 10 Films Of 2018
ISLE OF DOGS (Directed by Wes Anderson, 101 minutes, USA, 2018) Is it too much to ask for creators to occasionally make films that can be enjoyed for their simplicity? Wes Anderson thinks it is not. Isle of Dogs offers up adult themes in a good natured, perfectly executed package. Coupled with spectacular stop motion animation, Anderson and his army of voice actors bring alive a dystopian k-9 journey that is wrapped in very human emotions. It is an enjoyable journey populated by likable characters, each with their own unique set of mannerisms that make each dog more human […]
REVIEW: Black Mirror/Bandersnatch
BY MARIAH HALL By now the lingering haze of post-holiday goodwill has probably been ruined at the hands of Charlie Brooker and the all-consuming technological hell that is Black Mirror. In case you’ve somehow missed the internet hype, I’ll fill you in: Black Mirror: Bandersnatch is a choose-your-own-adventure special, where viewers are presented with two options at poignant points in the movie, each choice branching off into a completely different chain of events. Set in 1984, the story follows Stefan Butler, a programmer designing an interactive video game, an adaptation of a fantasy novel called Bandersnatch, by a writer […]
CINEMA: Dan Tabor’s Top 10 Films Of 2018
SUSPIRIA (Directed by Luca Guadagino, 152 minutes, USA, 2018) What can I say about Luca Guadagnino’s mesmerizing and profoundly unsettling re-make of Italian horror master Dario Argento’s Suspiria that I haven’t said already? This film about a young girl recruited by a dance school run by a coven of witches still has me firmly under its spell even looking back on it all these months later. It mirrors Guadagnino’s previous film Call Me By Your Name in that both are a coming of age and a love story that leaves you speechless and completely enraptured in its final moments. […]
CINEMA: Water World
AQUAMAN (Directed by James Wan, 143 minutes, USA, 2018) BY DAN TABOR FILM CRITIC Aquaman, the latest offering of the much-maligned DCU, is more or less a sequel to Justice League this time focusing on Arthur Curry AKA “The Aquaman” (Jason Momoa) and his origin story. Taking place a year after the battle over the Mother Boxes in Justice League, the film has the half-Atlantean/half-human now reluctantly falling into the role of superhero, when he is suddenly confronted by his past. As garbage and warships are cast from the ocean showing up on our shores, Arthur is tasked with stopping […]
CINEMA: All Work No Play Makes Jack A Dull Boy
THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT (Dir. by Lars von Trier, 152 min., USA, 2018) BY DAN TABOR FILM CRITIC Lars von Trier is no stranger to controversy and his latest effort, and The House that Jack Built, may be his most controversial film to date. The film that prompted about 100 walkouts in Cannes has the Danish filmmaker tackling the horror genre in his most audacious film to date. When it comes to auteurs no one personifies this term more than the eccentric von Trier, who while sometimes problematic, is still responsible for some the best cinema of last two […]
CINEMA: Can’t We All Get Along
GREEN BOOK (Directed by Peter Farelly, 140 minutes, USA, 2018) BY DAN TABOR FILM CRITIC ‘Based on a true story’ Green Book borrows its title from the Negro Motorist Green Book, informally called the “Green Book”. This mid-20th century guidebook was meant for African-American travelers, to let them know which hotels would be willing to host them in the Deep South. The film, which takes place in the mid-1960s stars as Viggo Mortensen as Tony “Lip” Vallelonga, a cardboard cutout of an Italian American stereotype who was a bouncer for the local night club. When the club closes for renovations, […]