I think the common read of the final scene (RNC being bankrupt and Amnesty International, Greenpeace, and the UNCF getting record donations) is that Martin’s up to his old tricks, now with an unstoppable super device.

I don’t find that very satisfying.  Martin would be a global power that would almost inevitably result in hit squads if not open war. It’s a huge tonal shift if you think just one step past the credits.

Another read is that Martin destroyed…

Short version: This is a movie about Tilda Swinton telling herself a story in which Idris Elba is a character. There are no actual djinns in it, Tilda processes feelings through stories, and this movie is about her doing some serious introspection about if she's actually content, or if she's been ignoring the true desires of her heart. Failing to accept her desires will force her to drift through life, unseen and unheard.

When I left the theater, I thought…

Fight or Flight feels like a very polished amateur effort. It’s uneven, but it takes big, bold swings. It’s smugly confident while lacking any nuance or emotional depth. It relishes in irreverence but remains principled.

But the only reason you watch this movie is for the action, and the action is refreshingly solid. The frantic camerawork is meant to enhance the physicallity instead of replace it. The choreography is fun and silly. The biggest mark against the movie is that…

A small budget movie set in the Cajun swamps of Louisiana.

Southern Comfort's most interesting as a social experiment, watching what happens when you give some idiots guns and autonomy, and then remove them from society (if only by the slightest amount).

The movie hangs everything on the performances, and they're a mixed bag. Carradine works as the smart under-achiever, Booth is solid as the saavy heavy, but Ward is unfortunately wasted as an idiotic hard-charger. Seales and Lannom turned…

As a movie, the Green Mile is far too long, and extremely basic. Every character is one-dimensional. The dramatic beats of the story are all over the place.

Wild Bill, a character defined by his over the top need to be disruptive, constantly disappears whenever they want to have a quiet, heartfelt scene 10' in front of his cell.

But the biggest issue, by far, is the message of the movie. An innocent black man is falsely convicted for child…

Oppenheimer trades almost exclusively in tone and ginned-up interpersonal moments. Nolan doesn't give the scientific, military, or political context needed to tell any of those stories. He's not interested in engaging with the Manhattan Project even at a pop-sci level, instead various proper nouns are name-checked, but could be erased and replaced without changing the structure of Nolan's script, just like a Mad Lib. Characters are all constructed out of the standard tropes from every fiction/biopic about a troubled genius,…