There’s something about vanity projects where they show the unbridled passion and sincerity of the creators. There is no committee or group to diffuse credit and responsibility. They feel individualistic and intimate that leave me guessing which is one of the best things to ask for when watching a movie. When they work, they are equal parts awe inspiring, awkward, amazing, and cringe worthy. And when they don’t work, it’s often embarrassing to the point where laughing at the person…

She’s All That is a rollercoaster. It’s earnest, funny at times and cringe inducing. But hey, isn’t that high school?

But the thing that truly sticks out: I could FEEL the script. At the time She’s All That wrapped, the screenwriter R. Lee Fleming Jr. was 29. I wonder what he thought as he watched the movie. Did it meet his artistic vision? Was this movie intended to be an insightful callback to high school in the 80s a la…

Boogie Nights is an iconic movie that has a legend - I think - that will outpace the impact that it had in the late 90s. I admire the achievement of making a mainstream movie, with award winning actors, about a very specific time and place in the history of porn. When I saw this at 16, I was dazzled by the technical artistry, the intricacy of weaving together so many stories, and the taboo novelty of an industry that…

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If you’ve been to Disneyland, I assume you’ve been on the “It’s A Small World” ride. Santa Claus is a lot like that ride. And to its credit, it predates that ride by 5 years.
 
However!

It’s A Small World is 15 minutes. Santa Claus is over 90. So imagine being stuck on the “It’s A Small World” as it travels around in circles 6 times.

Santa Claus is a curiosity. It supposedly turned a…

Casting JonBenet is deceptive in its brilliance. You need to pay close attention with this movie. Little by little, it sheds the obvious tropes of our insatiable appetite for gossiping one of the most famous crime cases in US history and becomes something much more sophisticated and frankly more interesting.

What if your reality, what if your truth about your surroundings was merely a reflection of your external processing of your internal trauma? What if our need to be seen…

Animation is the rare art form that can draw people in of all ages. The heightened visuals immediately catch the eye and often allow for visual expression of stories that are difficult to capture otherwise. And because of the ubiquity of the attraction to animation, we often get movies targeted to children or the occasional artistic experience from Pixar in the form of Wall-E, Up, Finding Nemo and the like.

But there really aren’t that many movies that can be…