SPOILER ALERT: Do not read this until after you see the film if you are one of those people who likes to go in with a blank slate. The following is the full monty. BY DAN TABOR AND JONATHAN VALANIA Once Upon A Time In Hollywood , Quentin Tarantino’s Manson-adjacent Hollywood hippie fantasia, is a fuckin’ hoot — let’s just make that clear up front. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Rick Dalton, who is kind of an amalgam of Tab Hunter, Fabian, Ty Harden and James Garner. You know, basically your typical ‘50s handsome leading he-man with a big […]
CINEMA: Paint It Black
EDITOR’S NOTE: To mark the eighth anniversary of Amy Winehouse’s criminally premature passing on July 23rd, 2011, we’re reposting our review of Asif Kapadia’s heartbreaking 2015 documentary, Amy. AMY (2015, directed by Asif Kapadia, 128 minutes, USA) BY JONATHAN VALANIA The fallen jazz singer Amy Winehouse was a heartbreaking work of staggering genius. The new documentary Amy, which maps with the clarity of hindsight Winehouse’s fairly meteoric rise and precipitous demise, is not far behind. Directed by Asif Kapadia (Senna), Amy arrives barely four years after her ridiculously premature death at the age of 27 from a combination of […]
CINEMA: Swedish Death Mettle
MIDSOMMAR (Dir. by Ari Aster, 140 minutes, 2019, USA) BY DAN TABOR FILM CRITIC It’s been a little over a year since Hereditary was unleashed on audiences and horror wunderkind Ari Aster is already back with Midsommar, yet another transgressive opus. A24 had originally planned to make Midsommar as a slasher film set in Sweden when they offered Aster the project, instead of taking it as is, he rewrote the script from the ground up, turning in a sophomore effort that solidifies him as one of this generation’s most interesting voices in horror. The film still shares some DNA with […]
CINEMA: Homeboy
SPIDERMAN: Far From Home (Directed by Jon Watts, 129 min., USA, 2019) BY DAN TABOR FILM CRITIC With Marvel fans still reeling from the events of Avengers: Endgame, Spiderman: Far From Home is here to officially close out the ‘Infinity Saga’ and bring an end to phase three. Reuniting Tom Holland’s Spidey with Homecoming director Jon Watts, this installment of the Spiderman saga introduces Jake Gyllenhaal into the MCU fold as Quentin Beck aka Mysterio. Honestly, it’s a little odd to see Gyllenhaal back in the blockbuster game and with Disney, of all studios, after his unfortunate turn in […]
UNGRATEFUL DEAD: Talking Zombies & Stooges With The Dead Don’t Die Director Jim Jarmusch
BY DAN TABOR FILM CRITIC Jim Jarmusch emerged on the American independent film scene in 1980 with his feature length debut Permanent Vacation, written and directed shortly after he dropped out of film school. The film would establish the director’s M.O. going forward: an eccentric cast of hipster characters who inhabit an almost otherworldly, super cool version of New York city. Jarmusch also displayed his musical chops composing the soundtrack for Vacation, that has over time evolved into a side hustle for the director who continues to perform and record with his experimental noise band, SQURL. His next film, […]
STILL STRANGER THAN PARADISE: Q&A With Eszter Balint, Actress, Musician, Singer-Songwriter
EDITOR’S NOTE: This interview with Stranger Than Paradise star Eszter Balint originally published back in 2015. We are reprising here today for two reasons, three actually: 1. It’s interesting, if you’re into, like, interesting things 2. It’s almost certainly the most in-depth, comprehensive and exhaustive Eszter Balint career overview ever published (hey, somebody had to do it) 3. She has a supporting role in the Jim Jarmusch zombie comedy (zom-com?) The Dead Don’t Die, which opens Friday. BY JONATHAN VALANIA Eszter Balint, best known as the then-16-year-old star of Jim Jarmusch’s career-making, tide-changing, genre-defining 1984 indie flick Stranger Than […]
GEEK SQUAD: The New X-Men Movie Reviewed
BY RICHARD SUPLEE GEEK SPACE CORRESPONDENT Dark Phoenix could be the last X-Men movie, in which case the franchise ends not with a bang but a whimper. The plot is a bit of a hot mess. Right away the X-Men jump into space to rescue some stranded astronauts and Jean Grey (Game of Throne’s Sophie Turner) is bombarded with a mysterious red energy known as the Phoenix Force that supercharges her powers. Predictably, she is also tempted to the dark side by the power. The rest of the film is just the X-Men trying to either save or kill […]
CINEMA: God Of Thunder
ROLLING STONE: “Setting out across a 1975 America exhausted politically, economically and socially, a busload of musicians—assembled by Bob Dylan—hits the road in search of new creative horizons. The resulting tour, the Rolling Thunder Revue, would reveal a Dylan rarely seen: playful, mask-wearing, intense, expansive, rejuvenated,” Netflix said of the film. “Masterfully capturing both an icon and a nation in transition, director Martin Scorsese tells the tale using footage that was abandoned for decades, now gorgeously restored, taking viewers into the heart of a freewheeling, electrifying musical gamble. Inspired by Dylan’s own restless spirit, Scorsese performs some breathtaking sleight of […]
CINEMA: Destroy All Monsters!
GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS (dir. by Michael Dougherty, 131 min.) BY DAN TABOR FILM CRITIC It’s been five years since Godzilla reboot decimated the multiplexes. That film was an artier take on the monster film, directed by Gareth Edwards (Monsters, Rogue One), that seemed to focus more on the human story than the giant lizard namesake that has spawned 30+ films. Since then there has been a refocus of the series, thanks of course to Marvel, to franchise up these monster films. This re-think was introduced in the follow up Kong: Skull Island, which setup not only one […]
Win Tix To Attend An Advance Screening Of Dead Don’t Die + A Q&A W/ Director Jim Jarmusch
Director Jim Jarmusch put the dead in deadpan. His films are elegantly cool pregnant pauses broken up with stillborn dialog and opening and closing credits scored with terminally hip soundtracks. His films wear sunglasses after dark, they smoke in places where no smoking is prohibited and they were cool before it was cool to be cool. Heretofore, Jarmusch has filmed the best minds of his generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, angel-headed hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the […]
CINEMA: The Graduates
BOOKSMART (directed by Olivia Wilde, 102 minutes, USA, 2019) BY DAN TABOR FILM CRITIC Olivia Wilde, who is probably best known for her role as Quorra in Tron: Legacy, steps behind the camera for her feature length directorial debut, the whip-smart, woke teen comedy Booksmart. This SXSW darling is the story of two joyless, over-achieving besties, Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) and Molly (Beanie Feldstein) who have an epiphany the night before graduation: they could’ve had fun AND excelled in their academic studies. And so, they endeavor to make their way to the cool kid’s party happening that night, detouring along the […]
INCOMING: Once Upon A Time In Hollywood
VARIETY: Hippie Hollywood is in full swing in the official trailer for Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” Sony released the new footage ahead of the movie’s highly anticipated premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. Tarantino’s ninth feature stars Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and Margot Robbie. The premise of “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” has been kept mostly under wraps, though Tarantino says it’s set in the late 1960s against the backdrop of the Manson family murders. DiCaprio plays washed-up TV star Rick Dalton, while Pitt portrays his longtime stunt double Cliff Booth. The two are struggling […]
CINEMA: Point Break
JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3 — PARABELLUM (Dir. by Chad Stahelski, 130 minutes) BY DAN TABOR John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum is the third and surprisingly not final installment of the action franchise directed by Keanu Reeves’ Matrix stunt-double-turned-action-maestro Chad Stahelski. The film once again stars Reeves as the namesake Russian hitman who was first sent down this dark path of vengeance when a group of thugs not only stole his car, but killed the puppy that was gifted to him by his recently departed wife. About a week has passed in Wick’s world since his rampage began so far […]