Tag: movies
Review: James Gray’s ‘The Lost City of Z’
James Gray’s The Lost City of Z has moments that hearken back to any old Hollywood adventure epic – the grand journeys of yesteryear in which destination and discovery were the sole rewards. The music swells, the actors look stalwart, sly and in charge, and the scope widens to reveal a scenic vista worth many…
Review: Cristian Mungiu’s ‘Graduation’
In the opening shot of Cristian Mungiu’s groundbreaking 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007), we see fish swimming in a bowl. Behind the bowl, a poster of New York stands as a paradise forever out of reach. That suggestion of a free world beyond the reach of everyday Romanians becomes far more overt…
The Color of Blood: Why Gore’s Hue Might Affect Cinematic Believability
Does the color of blood in a violent scene affect a movie’s credibility? I’ve been asking this question for a while after mulling a variety of great films that feature unrealistic-looking hemo-splatter yet remain some of the most believable pictures of all time. The Godfather (1972) has a scene in which the crime-family head Vito…
Zach Braff’s lazy remake of ‘Going in Style’
This will be the second consecutive piece I have written for Curnblog which begins by referencing an earlier piece I have written for Curnblog. That may well indicate that I have written too many things for Curnblog, or perhaps that I have just run out of ideas. But if I have run out of ideas,…
Puppet the Critic Show: John Wick 2
After I saw the poster for the second John Wick film, which seemed to have a hint of the horror film The Witch in its text and tone, I became intrigued, believing that John Wick 2 was going to use horror elements, extending the myth of Baba Yaga, and what happens to the boogey man…