On the one hand, it’s not hard to understand why NBC pulled the plug on Welcome to Sweden just four episodes into its second season. The show never, at least in the episodes we saw, found its voice. It went...
When you’re piecing together your reaction to a work of art that takes place over time (be it a movie, a novel or a season of a television show), the ending has a natural tendency to loom largest. After all,...
In most discussions or arguments, comparing your opponent to the Nazis is a sort of nuclear option that tends to obliterate the entire substance of both sides. Early in Renee Tajima-Peña’s No Más Bebés, that option is invoked. What’s truly...
When I first heard about Cupcakes, it didn’t immediately grab my interest. Frankly, everything about the name and poster of the film seemed cheesy and sugary (much like a cheese filled cupcake). Then I saw that Cupcakes was written and...
When you are about to watch a film starring the likes of Dolph Lundgren, Ron Perlman, Tony Jaa and Michael Jai White, you bring in certain expectations. It’s not really fair, nor possible, to judge Skin Trade as anything other...
Note: this review originally ran as part of our Los Angeles Film Festival coverage in 2013. Back in 2002, Alex and Andrew Smith made a film called The Slaughter Rule. That movie – about an angry teenager processing the death...
In the early silent era, filmmakers traveled the United States to find stories in small communities. Called “itinerant filmmakers,” they used locals to act and work on the films. Though the results may not be as spectacular as the big...
Aaron Katz has made some good films. His last one, 2010’s Cold Weather, was a delightful and sharp Long Goodbye-style detective story riff that languidly bounced from tangent to tangent with often hilarious results without ever losing sight of its propulsive central...
In this episode, Rudie and West continue their series on Wes Anderson with a discussion of his latest film, The Grand Budapest Hotel. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN
