REVIEW: No Sudden Move

For all his many and varied cinematic experiments, Steven Soderbergh always returns to making lighthearted crime capers.

Based on a original script by Ed Solomon, No Sudden Move is reminiscent of the works of Elmore Leonard; insofar as it portrays overconfident criminals out of their depths.…

PODCAST: Incredibles 2, Hereditary, Sicario: Soldado, Oceans 8, & Leave No Trace [Electric Shadows]

Episode 46 of The Electric Shadows Podcast focuses on Incredibles 2, but also finds time for Hereditary (one Rob is warmer to it than the other), Sicario: Soldado (the other Rob is warmer to it than the other), Oceans 8 (only one Rob has seen it) and Leave No Trace (only the other other Rob has seen it).…

Sicario is a moody, sun-bleached thriller set south of the border

Somewhere between the Wild West and Iraq lies Juarez, Mexico.

A brightly colored urban sprawl with a population of just over 1.3 million, in 2008 its murder rate was the highest in the world: 130 per 100,000. According to Sicario, the latest film from director Denis Villeneuve, it’s a city where mutilated corpses hang from overpasses, a warning from the cartels.…

Escobar: Paradise Lost thrives in the shadow of The Godfather

 

A feared and beloved crime family patriarch relaxes on a compound surrounded by loved ones, there to celebrate a special occasion. There’s music, and one of the clan has brought along their significant other.

So far so The Godfather, though the setting of Esobar: Paradise Lost is more akin to the film’s 1974 sequel, the isolated townships, dirt roads, and tropical forests of Colombia.…

Inherent Vice is stoner noir par excellence

 

From aspiring porn stars in the sun-drenched ‘70s to megalomaniacal, turn-of-the-century oil barons, Paul Thomas Anderson is one of the most uniquely identifiable directors currently working in cinema.

His projects range enormously in topic and scope; all that connects his work is a handful of recurring themes and a certain visual acuity that marks him as a director.…

Guardians of the Galaxy could be a brave new world for Marvel

 

Having come to define the superhero genre, after nine films and six years, Marvel has finally dared to go a little weird.

While there’s a definite built-in audience for the likes of Iron Man and Captain America, the Guardians of the Galaxy are relative unknowns.…