Don’t look now, but DON’T LOOK UP is pretty awful
DON’T LOOK UP is a star-studded space satire of less than stellar proportions
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DON’T LOOK UP is a star-studded space satire of less than stellar proportions
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Ratched Definitely isn’t Wretched
Ryan Murphy’s RATCHED isn’t trying to be prestige TV; rather it’s queer pulp that is propulsive, entertaining, and a thing you can’t tear your eyes from.
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This bad ending to a bad adaptation of LOVECRAFT COUNTRY leaves little to go forward on with a series finale that changed to a season finale.
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LOVECRAFT COUNTRY’s 9th episode is an astonishingly great installment in a very rough series, and makes the rest of the show seem like a lost opportunity.
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Condolences to the family of Emmett Till
With LOVECRAFT COUNTRY’s 8th episode you really get the show in a nutshell: It doesn’t know what it’s doing half the time, and whatever it thinks it is doing, it’s not even close to achieving.
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I Yam What I Yam
“I Am” is a good, but not great episode of LOVECRAFT COUNTRY that still suffers due to the series’ poor characterization despite it’s strong, weighty thematic material.
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Days of War and Roses
LOVECRAFT COUNTRY’s best episode in a while is still an exercise in placeholding.
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Interesting Idea, Terrible Execution
With episode 5 of LOVECRAFT COUNTRY, the series goes off the rails in one of the most anti-LGBT episodes of modern prestige television made.
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Just Amblin Along
As of episode 4, LOVECRAFT COUNTRY isn’t bad—it’s pretty good. But pretty good isn’t the same as really good, and it’s not close to great.
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Unholy house in an unholy land.
Lovecraft Country’s third episode opens with George’s widow, Hippolyta, and her daughter, Diana “Dee” Freeman, still reeling in the wake of George’s passing and funeral which, dialogue tells us, is now three weeks in the past. Diana seems to be doing the better of the pair as Hippolyta questions the “official” version of the story
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Bringing Down the House
The second episode of LOVECRAFT COUNTRY nails the themes established by the shows premise, but its wonky pacing leaves Andrew wondering how the rest of the show will play out.
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America is a Sundown Country
HBO’s new show LOVECRAFT COUNTRY takes the horrifying bigotry of the titular master of cosmic horror and repurposes it to its own ends.
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Andrew McRae takes a look back at Ennio Morricone (1928-2020), one of cinema’s great composers
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Paul Rudd is immortal, so he's an odd choice for a film about the afterlife.
Based on the trailer, GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE Ain’t Afraid of No Retreading of Past Installments in the Franchise.
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We’ll soon be able to witness THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING, the latest epic film from MAD MAX director George Miller.
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Time to get weird.
BARRY takes a turn into wildly violent comedy in the surreal fifth episode of season 2.
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“What?!” taps into BARRY’s depiction of an entirely transactional Los Angeles where everything, from friendship to police work, is up for sale.
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Barry struggles to come to terms with his past as he fights to preserve his new life.
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The Coens take on the West as only they can
A collection of stories linked by common thematic threads, THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS works both as a gateway and a thesis on the Coens’ body of work
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Sam Peckinpah’s two 70s Westerns, THE BALLAD OF CABLE HOGUE and PAT GARRET & BILLY THE KID, help form his final thesis on the American West.
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How Sam Peckinpah Used the death of the West to talk about a changing America
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Looking back on the season that was
A eulogy for the second season of WESTWORLD, a frustrating puzzle in desperate search of a story.
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Modern Comedy is Ushered In
Penelope Spheeris helped shape the modern comedy with WAYNE’S WORLD, and that contribution has been criminally ignored ever since.
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The Violent Ends to the Season’s Violent Delights
WESTWORLD’s second season has violent ends for its violent delights
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What We See of Ourselves
WESTWORLD confronts fatherhood on Father’s Day with a brutal, haunting story
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Frustratingly gorgeous and gorgeously frustrating
WESTWORLD evokes Malick in an episode carried by Zahn McClarnon
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Full of Splendor
WESTWORLD strikes a perfect balance between pace, plot, pulp, and philosophy in a heady episode
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The God in the Machine
A busy episode of WESTWORLD ends on a game-changing twist
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The brothers are here to perk you up as they shoot you down
The Sisters Brothers, based on the novel of the same name by Patrick Dewitt, has landed from stalwart quality picture house Annapurna Pictures. Featuring John C. Reilly (who bought the rights and produces) and Joaquin Phoenix as the titular Sisters, uh, brothers, it lands with a comedic vibe that seems broad here, but which reads
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The isn't the new world...
WESTWORLD takes a trip to Shogun-era Japan, and Maeve gets some new moves in an action-packed episode.
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"There was only ever the devil..."
WESTWORLD’s second season finally gets back on track and begins revealing its secrets
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A Passage to India
WESTWORLD touches on the concept of Disneyland in a plot-heavy placeholder episode
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"It doesn’t look like anything to me"
Two episodes in, WESTWORLD Season 2 has already begun focusing on obscure journeys with mysterious goals — which is narrative death.
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These violent timelines lead to violent ends
WESTWORLD returns for its second season and is pulling no punches.
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Two Sides of the Same Coin
Analyzing Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick’s different directions of THE SHINING
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Making a Game Out of Trump’s America
FAR CRY 5 is a vile game in the wake of American politics and current events.
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Marvel’s Promise to the Audience
In our inaugural piece for There Was An Idea…, Andrew McRae takes on 2008’s groundbreaking first entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, IRON MAN.
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Pitting COMING TO AMERICA Against BLACK PANTHER Just Because
It’s time for a battle of the entirely different genre heavyweights based on an entirely dumb premise. Wakanda vs. Zamunda. Two titans of the African continent. Two nations rich in history and pop cultural awareness. Zamunda was first made known to western eyes in the 1988 film Coming to America (directed by John Landis, famous
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Remembering a Friend in the Online Film Community
We lost Ian Abbott this week. Lewton Bus takes a moment to remember a good friend and a great guy.
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The night side of African royalty
The following contains spoilers for the 1972 film Blacula. Blacula: A relic, a punchline. Better than its reputation suggests, Blacula is a strange film of mixed intentions and execution. In the light of Black Panther, released this week, I thought about this film (which I have been going over in my mind, in some capacity, since
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MAISEL is more than marvelous: It’s an anthem.
Andrew argues that THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL is an essential, optimistic antidote for dark, frightening times
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There’s no place like home for the hellidays
At first blush, The Legend of Hell House, adapted by the legendary Richard Matheson from his own book Hell House, might not seem very much like Christmas. Christmas comes with certain associations: Eggnog and ugly sweater parties, presents piled under a decorated tree, carols being endlessly played in stores several weeks before we’ve even had
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Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the best at standing around looking cool of them all.
I’m ranking the STAR WARS bounty hunters. Pray I don’t rank them any further.
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Netflix’s new foray into Western-genre television is not heaven sent
Scott Frank’s & Steven Soderbergh’s GODLESS is gorgeously made and performed, but its story is tiresome, familiar, and unnecessary.
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