Great Movies
TV/Streaming
Hulu's “UnPrisoned” Takes Bigger Swings In Its Self-Assured Second Season
Strong performances let the writers take big risks, visualizing therapeutic concepts in ways that would feel trite or over-the-top in a less-skilled production.
Strong performances let the writers take big risks, visualizing therapeutic concepts in ways that would feel trite or over-the-top in a less-skilled production.
Wendy Robie on "Twin Peaks"; Regina King on "Watchmen"; Mark Pellington on Quibi; Diane Quon on producing; Yusuf on Cat Stevens.
Matt writes: On our annual Day4 Empathy commemorating the passing of Roger Ebert, our site's publisher Chaz Ebert penned a beautiful message wishing readers health, safety and compassion during the COVID-19 pandemic, while managing editor Brian Tallerico republished Roger's reviews of various films that we're watching during the quarantine. I later joined my fellow writers in recommending the films and shows we've been streaming at home (my choice was Hulu's addictive new series "Little Fires Everywhere," starring Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington).
What the writers of RogerEbert.com have been watching while being stuck at home.
With "The Hateful Eight," Quentin Tarantino betrays the female fans he's until-now supported.
Ebertfest receives a 2014 grant from the Hollywood Foreign Press.
Picks for the best of the 2013-14 television season, in the form of a Dream Emmy ballot.
Veronica Mars gets technology right; The five things that separate The Grand Budapest Hotel from the rest of Anderson's films; The five things you need to know about technology and media; An interview with Walter Murch; Reviewing last night's Scandal episode.
The New York Times' David Carr admits that Glenn Greenwald is a journalist; Criterion Collection appreciates Alex Cox's Repo Man; poets go to the movies; James Franco's never-ending navel-gaze; David Edelstein dismantles The Way, Way Back; Kerry Washington on the cover of Vanity Fair; Dennis Hopper documentary.
From the Sundance Institute:
Los Angeles, CA — Last night, Wednesday, June 5, the third annual ‘Celebrate Sundance Institute’ benefit in Los Angeles honored the life and work of beloved journalist and film critic Roger Ebert with the Vanguard Leadership Award in Memoriam. The event also honored filmmaker Ryan Coogler – whose debut feature film, Fruitvale Station, was selected for Sundance Institute's Screenwriters Lab and went on to win both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival – with the Vanguard Award, Presented by Tiffany & Co.
Los Angeles, CA: Sundance Institute will remember and celebrate journalist and film critic Roger Ebert by honoring him with the Vanguard Leadership Award in Memoriam, in recognition of his advocacy of independent cinema. He was a frequent attendee of the Sundance Film Festival, where he discovered and supported films like Hoop Dreams, Man Push Cart, Come Early Morning, Longtime Companion, Metropolitan, The Brothers McMullen, Crumb, Picture Bride, American Movie, and The War Zone. Sundance alumni who count him as an advocate include Steve James, Spike Lee, Kathryn Bigelow, Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino, Errol Morris and Werner Herzog.
Rating: Four stars
Consider now the curious character of Dr. King Schultz. He is an itinerant dentist who works from his little wagon, traveling the backroads of the pre-Civil War South. As Quentin Tarantino's "Django Unchained" opens, we see a line of shackled slaves being led through what I must describe as a deep, dark forest, because those are the kinds of forests we meet in fairy tales. Out of this deepness and darkness, Schultz (Christoph Waltz) appears, his lantern swinging from his wagon, which has a bobbling tooth on its roof.
Quentin Tarantino has found his actor in Christoph Waltz -- someone who can speak Tarantinian fluently and still make it his own. When Waltz uses a self-consciously ostentatious word like "ascertain" (as in, "I was simply trying to ascertain..." -- the kind of verbiage QT is as likely to put in the mouth of a lowlife crook as a German dentist, or a Francophile plantation slavemaster, for that matter), it sounds right. As someone to whom Tarantino's dialog often sounds cliche-ridden and cutesy, it's a pleasure to hear Waltz saying the words in character rather than simply as a mouthpiece for the writer-director.
Oh, stop. This isn't sounding the way I want it to.
Quentin Tarantino's "Django Unchained" (2012) is a very good Tarantino movie. Save for "Pulp Fiction," I tend to appreciate and respect Tarantino movies more than I enjoy them. "Pulp Fiction," however, was so entertaining that I did not want it to end. Such were my feelings with "Django Unchained." As a mash of bloody pulp cinema with great aspirations, it is as entertaining as anything I have seen from Tarantino. For Tarantino diehards it is as Tarantino-esque as everything else from him.
The Grand Poobah writes: "No man has a better wife than Chaz."
Marie writes: Intrepid club member Sandy Kahn has found another Hollywood auction and it's packed with stuff! From early publicity stills (some nudes) to famous movie props, costumes, signed scripts, storyboards, posters and memorabilia...
