Tagged: review

david bax / home video hovel / movies / reviews

August 18, 2018

Home Video Hovel: The Holy Mountain, by David Bax

The opening titles of Arnold Fanck’s 1926 The Holy Mountain would like you to know that no trick photography was used. It’s referring specifically to the extensive footage of expert ski jumpers doing flips and spins in the air; for a considerable...

best of the week / movies

August 17, 2018

Shading the Oscars with Katie Walsh and Other Stuff You Might Have Missed This Week

Here are the top five things that went down at Battleship Pretension this week: Episode 595: New Oscar Rules with Katie Walsh Crazy Rich Asians: Experience Has Made Me Rich, by David Bax Crossing the Streams: August 2018, by Jim...

david bax / movies / reviews / Theatrical Review

August 16, 2018

Breaking & Exiting: Damages, by David Bax

Peter Facinelli really likes to rack focus. Breaking & Exiting, his feature directorial debut, is replete with mid-shot focal shifts. It’s like he can’t control himself. At one point, while our protagonist, Harry (Milo Gibson), is filling up his truck...

david bax / movies / reviews / Theatrical Review

August 16, 2018

Alpha: I’m Lost and I’m Found, by David Bax

Albert Hughes’ Alpha is a little weird when you think about it. And, when you really think about it, it’s a lot weird. Like, it’s weird that it even exists. Not that that’s a complaint; it’s a good movie, for...

david bax / movies / reviews / Theatrical Review

August 15, 2018

We the Animals: I’ll Fly Away, by David Bax

At the beginning of Jeremiah Zagar’s We the Animals, we meet three boys, brothers, all close in age. They run and play in their modest house and the surrounding woods. One of them is narrating but we can’t quite tell which....

david bax / featured / movies / reviews / Theatrical Review

August 15, 2018

Crazy Rich Asians: Experience Has Made Me Rich, by David Bax

Jon M. Chu’s Crazy Rich Asians knows exactly what it’s doing by employing so much jazzy, brassy Big Band music. In many ways, the movie feels like something new; a romantic comedy featuring an all Asian cast taking place amidst...

david bax / movies / reviews / Theatrical Review

August 15, 2018

Juliet, Naked: Heard It All Before, by David Bax

There’s something familiar about Jesse Peretz’s Juliet, Naked: Everything. From the tired music made by one character to the Web 1.0 fansite made by another to the plot itself, we’ve seen it all before. Annie (Rose Byrne) is the curator of...

david bax / movies / reviews / Theatrical Review

August 15, 2018

Minding the Gap: Pressure Flip, by David Bax

Bing Liu’s Minding the Gap (yes, it’s a terrible title; get over it) is a documentary about skateboarding. It is also a documentary about the lives of skateboarders, for whom skateboarding is a constant, a touchstone. And so, just like its subjects,...

david bax / movies / reviews / Theatrical Review

August 15, 2018

The Wife: Listen Up Joe, by David Bax

Christian Slater, known for bad boy and wild card roles, plays a surprisingly convincing intellectual slimeball in Bjorn Runge’s The Wife. On the other hand, Max Irons, son of Jeremy, is a particularly unconvincing schlub; under the bad haircut and ill-fitting...