Perhaps the most amazing thing about Asteroid City is that it actually exists. For the bean counters who fund the movies, eccentricity and experimentation are rarely inspiring motivators to open wallets, as evidenced by the Sisyphean career of Terry Gilliam. But somehow, even though his projects have by no means been consistently successful, Wes Anderson has managed to crack … [Read more...]
‘Three Thousand Years of Longing’ jinns up everything but fun
If the manic riffing of Robin Williams occupies one end of the spectrum of pop-culture genies, Idris Elba’s glum and mournful jinn in George Miller’s new film Three Thousand Years of Longing sits, or rather stews, on its opposite end. Downplayed and downcast, he is suffused with languor, his occasional pangs of curiosity toward modern life blunted by sullen memories of previous … [Read more...]
‘Doctor Strange’ mesmerizes with digital wizardry, sense of fun
Note to future directors of blockbuster bombast: Gone are the days of watching metropolises simply explode or collapse from such banally familiar tropes as nuclear blasts, alien death rays or picayune fisticuffs of levitating Avengers. Doctor Strange, himself a future Avenger, and the new Marvel movie that dramatizes his origin story, have rewritten the disaster playbook, … [Read more...]