Christopher Llewellyn Reed's Blog, page 56
August 22, 2016
Criterion’s “Muriel” + “A Tale of Love and Darkness” + Tracy Droz Tragos x2 at “Hammer to Nail”
In the past two weeks, Hammer to Nail published three reviews of mine – of two movies just released and one brand-new Criterion Collection Blu-ray disc – plus one interview, with director Tracy Droz Tragos (whose latest documentary, Abortion: Stories Women Tell, was one of my reviews). Here are the links to all four pieces: Tracy Droz Tragos interview Abortion: Stories […]
August 19, 2016
“Roughly Speaking” Podcast on Hollywood Epics, “Ben-Hur,” “Hell or High Water” and “War Dogs”
Today, Linda DeLibero – Director, Film and Media Studies, Johns Hopkins University – and Christopher Llewellyn Reed (that’s me) – Chair and Professor, Department of Film & Moving Image, Stevenson University – join Dan Rodricks on his Baltimore Sun podcast, “Roughly Speaking,” where we discussed three films out in theaters this weekend – Hell or High Water, War Dogs and a new version of Ben-Hur – using […]
“Hell or High Water” Is a Brilliant Existential Western Crime Thriller
Hell or High Water (David Mackenzie, 2016) It’s early morning in West Texas. The camera drifts lazily over and through the low-rise buildings of a small town, nondescript and empty in the morning. A patch of graffiti reads “3 Tours in Iraq, but no bailout for people like us.” We travel through a parking lot and come […]
“War Dogs” Offers Mostly Great Satire of Our Military/Industrial Complex
War Dogs (Todd Phillips, 2016) Todd Phillips is the man responsible for giving us all three Hangover films. I loved the first one but hated the second, and therefore avoided the third. As they went along (at least from #1 to #2), their humor degraded from boundary-pushing to just plain vicious, as the protagonists’ antics and attendant […]
“Ben-Hur” Fails to Champion Its Raison d’Etre
Ben-Hur (Timur Bekmambetov, 2016) American Civil War Hero Lewis Wallace – or General Lew Wallace, as he is most often known – published what would become a mega-bestseller, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, in 1880. It told the fictional story of a Jewish prince of Jerusalem, Judah Ben-Hur, in the years of Jesus Christ’s preaching, who […]
August 11, 2016
“Sausage Party” Offers an Orgy of Jokes Crude, Rude, Lewd … and Sometimes Funny, Too!
Sausage Party (Greg Tiernan/Conrad Vernon, 2016) If the thought of your food having sex (note: not you having sex with your food) after doing battle with those who would eat it, all the while spouting gourmet profanities galore, then this just might be the movie for you. On the other hand, depending on your tolerance […]
In “Florence Foster Jenkins,” La Diva Streep Warbles Through a Too-Often Flat Aria
Florence Foster Jenkins (Stephen Frears, 2016) I miss the Meryl Streep of yore, before she was an institution, accorded diva status and expected to play corresponding roles. I loved her in Tommy Lee Jones’s recent The Homesman, where her few minutes on screen allowed her enough time to show how much she could do with very little. […]
Disney’s Remade “Pete’s Dragon” Offers CGI Delights and Flesh-and-Bone Disappointments
Pete’s Dragon (David Lowery, 2016) If you are a fan of the original Pete’s Dragon, released in 1977, eager to see what the new version has to offer, know this: where that film trafficked in the kind of adorably silly vibe that was Walt Disney’s stock-in-trade at the time, the 2016 remake is most definitely a […]
August 10, 2016
Criterion’s “Night and Fog” + “Neither Heaven Nor Earth” + Gillian Armstrong x2 at “Hammer to Nail”
In the past two weeks, Hammer to Nail published three reviews of mine – of two movies just released and one brand-new Criterion Collection Blu-ray disc – plus one interview, with director Gillian Armstrong (whose latest documentary, Women He’s Undressed, was one of my reviews). Here are the links to all four pieces: Neither Heaven Nor Earth review Night […]
August 4, 2016
In “Don’t Think Twice,” Funny People Try Too Hard to Be Sad
Don’t Think Twice (Mike Birbiglia, 2016) Comedian Mike Birbiglia has developed a loyal fanbase over the past 10 years or so with his standup routines, Comedy Central specials and frequent appearances on the popular public radio broadcast This American Life. One of his most devoted fans, in fact, is the producer/star of that last show, Ira Glass, who has […]
