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  Top Gun: Maverick 2022

  Watched by Keith Uhlich 19 May 2022

  [Published 05/19/2022, (All (Parentheses))]

  We Bought a Xenu

  Easy, I guess, to improve on one of the worst movies ever made. Though what’s gained in star vehicle/legacy sequel Top Gun: Maverick (Fincher-derived Kosinskian clarity supplanting the visual-aural-moral chaos of Anthony David Leighton Scott, for one) is worth about as much as the military-industrial entertainment complex that the film, like its predecessor, shamelessly promulgates. Similarly faceless villains (Afghanis? Russians? Canadians?). Phallic phlying machines cupped and caressed. Star Wars (but in real…

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  The Truth About Charlie 2002

  Watched by Keith Uhlich 10 May 2022

  [Published 12/24/2002, CultureDose, slightly revised]

  Demme’s Thrilling Humanist Romance

  By Keith Uhlich

  Here’s the one this year that got away.

  Jonathan Demme’s The Truth About Charlie is ostensibly a remake of the 1963 Stanley Donen comedy/thriller Charade and that alone practically guaranteed the film’s financial failure. Charade is an example, after all, of the perfect Hollywood film: attractive stars (Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn), ingenious script (by Peter Stone), memorable setting and atmosphere (using both real and make-believe Paris locations)…

Popular reviews

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  Nomadland 2020

  Watched by Keith Uhlich 16 Oct 2020 5

  [Published as part of New Pollution #2]

  The irritatingly genteel Nomadland, adapted from a nonfiction book by Jessica Bruder, appears well on its way to golden statuettes and other year-end plaudits. For writer-director-editor Chloé Zhao this is the last stop before the Marvel Moloch grinds her personal stamp, such as it is, to a pre-viz’d pulp with The Eternals. I didn’t much care for the mannered neo-realism of The Rider, but at least it could fall back on the authenticity…

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  Jojo Rabbit 2019

  Watched by Keith Uhlich 09 Sep 2019 2

  [Published September 9th, 2019, Slant Magazine]

  Excerpt

  Waititi prefers to treat his audience like drooling cretins who need their hands held through every shift in tone, reassured that everything, even in a world off its axis, is going to work out. It doesn’t help that this misguided production is utterly devoid of laughs, though I admit to cracking a desperate smile when the nitwit Nazi played by Sam Rockwell demands that an underling bring him German shepherds, as in the dogs, and is instead delivered shepherds who are German. It’s a flash of punny bliss in what’s otherwise Marvel Presents Mein Kampf.

  Link

  www.slantmagazine.com/film/review-jojo-rabbit-is-taika-waititis-marvel-presents-mein-kampf/