The Movie Critic Defender

There is a common misperception that film critics enjoy bashing movies–salivating at the chance to collectively jump on the next blockbuster and declare it trash while we judge it from our ivory towers.  The idea that I might enjoy watching, analyzing, and writing about a bad movie strikes me as incredibly asinine.  Even if I […]

13 Assassins [Jûsan-nin no shikaku] (2010)

Depending on your point of view, 13 Assassins is either very familiar or very unusual.  For those with even a casual knowledge of Japanese cinema, the film is immediately recognizable as a remake of the better than average The Thirteen Assassins, a film that was a lesser riff on Seven Samurai.  As a remake of […]

Super (2011)

Super is the type of movie that thrills me by its very existence.  It’s a whacked-out burst of intelligent, inventive filmmaking that does a great job of juggling wildly shifting tones while never forgetting where the heart of its story rests.  I watched the film with a huge smile on my face as writer-director James […]