REVIEW: The Card Counter

For a film called The Card Counter, Paul Schrader’s latest has very little interest in games of chance.

William Tell (Oscar Isaac; self-contained, slicked-back hair), the eponymous card counter, is a creature of habit; in part a holdover from his time in prison.…

REVIEW: Ready Player One

In recent years, Steven Spielberg has had his gaze focused firmly on the past.

From Abraham Lincoln and the fight for emancipation to The Washington Post battling for freedom of the press, Spielberg is working him way, statesmanlike, through American history, celebrating the better angels of our nature; like Frank Capra with a library card.…

X-Men: Apocalypse blows through quickly and entertainingly enough

 

In the hinterland between the extreme competency of Marvel and the trainwreck-clusterfuck that is the DC Cinematic Universe there lies the X-Men.

With its respectable (but by no means perfect) batting average and increasingly dysfunctional relationship with continuity, the franchise is a fairly unique position with regards to superhero movies.…

Joe ties Nicolas Cage to the stake and prods a great performance out of him

 

Nicholas Cage is a visionary; he strides boundaries.

Few can claim a filmography as eclectic as his: from Rumble Fish to Vampires Kiss, through Con Air and Face/Off, Adaptation and Lord of War, to Ghost Rider, Kick-Ass, and now Joe.