That famously hokey theme song, “When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are, anything your heart desires, will come to you...” opens and closes Pinocchio. In the opening scene, the adult audience might ready themselves for a grating, corny kid's flick. In the closing scene, the audience might be grimly amused; the song is incongruous with the horrors that they endured watching the film. Yes, your wishes may come true, but not in any treacly “power…

About a month ago I experienced this mesmerizing haze of deception centered around the most endearing actors ever to grace the screen, made some arbitrary calculations in my head about how meaningful any of this had really been, read a few frustrating Letterboxd write-ups that gave far more insight into their authors than into the film in question, and slapped a somewhat-approving score on it. The following day, I still had "I said I'd love you for forever and a…

From the director of Cats (2019) comes . . .

Who would have thought that a dramatization of our beloved champions of liberty could be created with such understanding, honor, and craft? In spite of a confused cinematography throughout and a single sex scene that is both absolutely modest and absolutely gratuitous, this mini-series has otherwise moderated my heavy cynicism towards historically-minded entertainment. Is there a bio-pic in existence that doesn't have its writers' irrelevant obsessions imposed on their subjects?…

Oh, another comedy-thriller class-warfare flick? I guess this is a genre now.

If Maxim Gorky was here today, he might be disappointed by the progress of the World Communist Revolution, but he'd be quite pleased with our arthouse films. The bourgeoise-pig character can't stand the smell of those revolting proletariat characters; the bourgeoise-pig home is portrayed thousands of cinematic steps up from the proletariat basement-house; the built-up resentment of the proletariat must inevitably explode in violence. This is just social…