“CAPTAIN AMERICA” SEQUEL BLOWS UP MARVEL FORUMULA
By Greg Popil “When I went under the world was at war. I wake up, they say we won. They didn’t say what we lost.” Those words, spoken by Steve “Captain America” Rogers in 2012’s “The Avengers,” plan...
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WES ANDERSON’S “HOTEL” A LOVE LETTER TO LOST TIMES
By Greg Popil Has there ever been a writer/director whose films bridge a wider gulf between what should not work and what does work than Wes Anderson? In the years since his 1998 breakthrough master...
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“MUPPETS” SEQUEL DRAGGED DOWN BY RELEVANCE OBSESSION
By Greg Popil When did cultural relevance become such an essential part of the Muppets experience? Sometime after the tragic death of creator Jim Henson in 1990, the Muppets franchise began a slow sli...
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NEED FOR A BETTER SCRIPT
By Greg Popil You have to give the creators of “Need For Speed” this much credit: They don’t lack guts when it comes to throwing down the gauntlet in terms of living up to the legends of its genre. ...
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“SLAVE” RIPS OPEN AMERICA’S FESTERING WOUNDS
By Greg Popil Referring to the nearly 400-year era in which America allowed an entire race of human beings to be subjugated to enslavement as an “injustice” can seem pathetically quaint. Indeed, all ...
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“POMPEII” PROVIDES MINOR B-MOVIE PLEASURES
By Greg Popil In 79 A.D., the small Italian villa of Pompeii was completely and utterly obliterated by the eruption of Vesuvius, a massive volcano that buried the town beneath 20 feet of ash and lava....
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A “WINTER’S TALE” BEST LEFT UNTOLD
By Greg Popil After a lifetime of watching movies, a bad one can feel like white noise, a mildly irritating sensation that passes, barely noticed, and is forgotten the moment the discomfort is over. ...
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“THE LEGO MOVIE” ATTEMPTS TO MAKE COMMERCE INTO ART
By Greg Popil Is it possible to make a real artistic statement out of a commercial? The brain naturally recoils at the notion. Art has always had a tenuous but working relationship with capital (mos...
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“KIDS FOR CASH” EXPOSES NEPA’S OPEN WOUNDS
By Greg Popil A sad, tragic story, particularly in documentary form, can be painful to watch regardless of the tale’s location, participants, and details. A good filmmaker can chronicle the exploits ...
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THE BEAUTIFUL, BRAVE STORY OF “HER”
By Greg Popil As a society, or at least as the subset of society that enjoys websites about rock music and independent film, we can get caught up in lionizing the idea of “authenticity.” The notion t...
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