15 Nov 2015

Miner Catastrophe: "The 33," "Suffragette," and "Love the Coopers"

By Mike Schulz

Lou Diamond Phillips and Antonio Banderas in The 33THE 33

Even if you can't recall the event's salient details, you likely remember the Chilean mine disaster that led the international news cycle for weeks in 2010, and that has now inspired director Patricia Riggen's The 33. But as this strong, heartfelt film's tension is built almost entirely on those salient details, it's hard to determine, in describing the story, exactly what about this five-year-old true tale should be considered a spoiler. Do you remember, for instance, how long the 33 miners were trapped before anyone even knew they were alive? How many days it took after that for rescue teams to excavate them? How many of the 33 actually perished underground?

07 Nov 2015

Bored. Mike Bored. : "Spectre" and "The Peanuts Movie"

By Mike Schulz

Daniel Craig in SpectreSPECTRE

Watching the opening credits to the new James Bond thriller Spectre, I leaned back in my seat, smiled, and thought, "Man, I love these things." Not Bond movies, per se, but their opening credits. The lushly rendered colors. The serenely gliding camera pans. The artful poses and undulating torsos. The charming, deferential formality of the star's name followed by " ... as Ian Fleming's James Bond 007 in ... ." The mystery of the accompanying pop song, which is as likely to be atrocious as marvelous. (Spectre's "Writing's on the Wall," sung by Sam Smith, leans more toward the former. And call it gender bias or even blatant sexism, but I do think that unless you're Paul McCartney or maybe Simon Le Bon, these duties should really be handled by women.)

01 Nov 2015

In a Stew: "Burnt," "Our Brand Is Crisis," and "Truth"

By Mike Schulz

Omar Sy and Bradley Cooper in BurntBURNT and OUR BRAND IS CRISIS

This past weekend brought with it not only Bradley Cooper in the genius-chef-in-crisis drama Burnt, but also Our Brand Is Crisis, in which Sandra Bullock plays a political strategist running a Bolivian presidential campaign. You know what this means, right? It may be happening on neighboring screens, but after six long years, we're finally treated to the All About Steve reunion no one was asking for!

24 Oct 2015

The Apple Doesn't Fall Far from the Tree: "Steve Jobs," "The Last Witch Hunter," and "Rock the Kasbah"

By Mike Schulz

Michael Stuhlbarg, Michael Fassbender, and Kate Winslet in Steve JobsSTEVE JOBS

Steve Jobs, the thunderously enjoyable new movie by director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, doesn't look or sound quite like any other bio-pic. It does, however, look like a lot of other Boyle films and sounds like every Sorkin ever, and this might've been a deal-breaker if (a) I meant that insultingly, (b) the world actually needed another traditional telling of the late CEO's saga, and (c) Boyle's and Sorkin's seemingly mismatched talents didn't prove absolutely ideal for one another.

18 Oct 2015

Armistice Wrestling: "Bridge of Spies," "Goosebumps," and "Woodlawn"

By Mike Schulz

Billy Magnussen, Mark Rylance, and Tom Hanks in Bridge of SpiesBRIDGE OF SPIES

I caught Steven Spielberg's Cold War thriller Bridge of Spies at a Friday-matinée screening alongside roughly 75 others. You could tell it was a predominantly, shall we say, mature crowd because of the volume and frequency of coughing fits, the food items being unwrapped with aching slowness, and the stage-whispered narration following louder queries of "What'd he say?!" You could also tell that, on numerous occasions, the movie was really working for this group, because for long stretches the crowd opted to remain collectively, blessedly silent.

18 Oct 2015

Goth-ick: "Crimson Peak," "Beasts of No Nation," and "I'll See You in My Dreams"

By Mike Schulz

Tom Hiddleston and Mia Wasikowska in Crimson PeakCRIMSON PEAK

You gotta give director Guillermo del Toro credit: When he wants to make a movie in which the central character, for all intents and purposes, is a haunted house, this man does not mess around.

12 Oct 2015

Ar-r-r-r-r You Kidding Me?: "Pan" and "He Named Me Malala"

By Mike Schulz

Hugh Jackman and Levi Miller in PanPAN

Not long into director Joe Wright's origin fable Pan, the 12-year-old Peter (Levi Miller), newly captured by pirates descending from bungee cords, surveys the World War II fighter planes striking his kidnappers' airborne pirate ship and shouts, "Oh, come on!" Roughly an hour later, in the midst of another aerial attack, Captain Hook (Garrett Hedlund) - a heroic American boasting Indiana Jones' wardrobe and two functional hands - gazes at the melee involving enormous CGI birds of prey and shouts, "Oh, come on!" What does it say about a movie when even its leads can't believe in the on-screen nonsense?

03 Oct 2015

Ridley's Believe It or Not: "The Martian" and "Sicario"

By Mike Schulz

Matt Damon in The MartianTHE MARTIAN

If you, too, are a devotee of Ridley Scott's Alien, you'll no doubt remember how its title came into view during the opening credits: as a series of vertical, diagonal, and horizontal white lines that slowly appeared, beginning with the "I," one or two at a time until the capitalized "ALIEN" was wholly spelled out. Thirty-six years later, the title for Scott's sci-fi tale The Martian is revealed in the exact opposite manner: as a full, capitalized "THE MARTIAN" that gradually fades away, one portion at a time, until only the "I" remains.

03 Oct 2015

Mime on Wire: "The Walk," "Tiny Giants 3D," and "Hell & Back"

By Mike Schulz

There have been verified reports of patrons vomiting during the last half hour of The Walk, director Robert Zemeckis' big-budget take on Philippe Petit's famed 1974 high-wire trek between Manhattan's Twin Towers, a tale previously recounted in James Marsh's Oscar-winning documentary Man on Wire. The response of those patrons is understandable; as a lifelong sufferer of vertigo - especially when those vertiginous heights are around 1,368 feet above street level - I did have to look at the cineplex floor a few times to steady my nerves. But in the end, my senses of profound terror, anxiety, and euphoria at Zemeckis' cinematic feat proved worth the discomfort. I only wish I could say the same for the movie's first 90 minutes, which could easily provoke vomiting among those, like myself, who gag at the mere thought of revisiting Amélie.

27 Sep 2015

Driving Miss Dizzy: "The Intern," "The Green Inferno," and "Hotel Transylvania 2"

By Mike Schulz

Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway in The InternTHE INTERN

Older audiences deserve comforting, pandering crap as much as everyone else, so I probably shouldn't be too hard on The Intern, especially because, with Nora Ephron's passing, writer/director Nancy Meyers is pretty much carrying the torch for Hollywood's all-too-rare female-centric dramedies detailing the personal costs of Having It All. But I'm going to be hard on it anyway, given that Meyers' mildly insulting sitcoms about strong, successful career women who are only truly fulfilled after Finding the Right Man are usually buoyed by ace performances (Something's Gotta Give's Diane Kaeaton and Jack Nicholson; It's Complicated's Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, and Steve Martin), and this film just doesn't have 'em.

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