The Marvel Cinematic Universe began in 2008 as an experimental attempt to recreate the dynamic of superhero comics on the silver screen — use multiple film series to explore characters living in the same storyworld, and, relying on the character development of solo-outings, create big team-up films that are both thrilling and satisfying. The massive success of 2012’s The Avengers essentially proved the concept, and with the image of a grinning Thanos in [...]
Ralph Fiennes’ film about famous Soviet ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev begins by explaining that its title, The White Crow, comes from a Russian expression for ‘outsider,’ an unusual, extraordinary person that is unlike the others. The choice is a poignant one — hold it in your mind, because it is the key that unlocks the narrative. The story centers around Nureyev’s defection to the West, and Fiennes interweaves three periods of his life [...]
The most important thing to know going into a screening of Jim Jarmusch’s The Dead Don’t Die is that it’s odd. Set in the fictional town of Centerville, USA amidst an environmental disaster, Bill Murray and Adam Driver headline a star-studded cast as two policemen trying to protect their town from the zombies suddenly rising from their graves. When it opened this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the two major critical takeaways were its [...]
