Film – Chuck Koplinski

On June 28, 2013, a lightning strike occurred outside Yarnell, Arizona. Unfortunately, conditions were perfect for the fire to spread rapidly, which it did, threatening the town nearby. Highways were shut down, citizens were evacuated, and extra men were brought in to help contain the disaster. Among them was the Granite Mountain Hotshots based out […]

The title of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris’ film Battle of the Sexes refers to far more than the tennis match at its core. Yes, it’s a fascinating, behind-the-scenes account of the grudge match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs that took place in 1973, but it’s also a portrait of a transitional time […]

Going where many filmmakers would fear to tread, director Denis Villeneuve has ventured into dangerous territory by making a sequel to Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner with Blade Runner 2049, a lavish continuation of the cult sci-fi classic that manages to be an improvement on the original. I know this opinion will be seen as heresy […]

There’s a lot to like about Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Matthew Vaughn’s follow-up to his surprise hit from three years ago. There’s almost as much not to like as well. Actually, there’s a lot of a lot of stuff in this movie, as Vaughn seems intent on stuffing 10 pounds of visual mayhem and plot […]

I remember that during one of my father’s melancholy moments, of which there were many, he expressed a theory he had where God and human beings were concerned. He felt as though Earth and all that lived on it was simply an experiment in the Creator’s eyes and that He watched and waited to see […]

Having gone through multiple directors and various screenwriters, Stephen King’s It has finally made it to the big screen, an event that’s been a long time coming for those disappointed with the lackluster 1990 mini-series that, inexplicably, has a cult following. As helmed by Andy Muschietti, whose only previous feature, Mama, was long on atmosphere […]

Like a piece of fresh meat on a kitchen counter, films tend to not get any better the longer they sit. After being completed more than three years ago and delayed for release three times, Justin Chadwick’s adaptation of Deborah Moggach’s novel Tulip Fever finally hit theaters over the Siberia of all movie weekends, Labor […]

Patricia Dowbrowski (Danielle MacDonald) knows there’s more to life than just working odd jobs in New Jersey and cleaning up after her alcoholic mother. She sees the high life in the rap videos she watches again and again and even fantasizes about chillin’ with her idol O-Z (Sahr Ngaujah). Yeah, she knows where she wants […]

Critics and fans alike have been heaping praise upon Josh and Benny Safdie’s Good Time since its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. It’s easy to see why, as this is a “Hey, look at me!” production, one suffused with style and meant to signal there are brave new visionaries behind the […]

It would be easy to dismiss Stephen Soderbergh’s Logan Lucky as a countrified Ocean’s Eleven. It does revolve around a heist; it does involve a ragtag group of misfits; it does contain its fair share of narrative switchbacks, and it does have the director’s trademark brand of sly humor. But these are only surface similarities, […]

Through sheer force of will, Idris Elba (“The Man Who Would Be Bond”) attempts to make Nikolaj Arcel’s adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower something of note. Needless to say, his efforts go to waste in this odd misfire of a movie, a production that takes a surprisingly modest approach to the author’s epic […]

As she so adeptly proved in The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, director Kathryn Bigelow is a master at recreating urban warfare on screen, an ability she uses to great effect in her latest film Detroit, an account of the race riots that plagued the area in the summer of 1967 and one particularly […]