For the New York Times, reviews of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows, which is not good; The Final Master, which is pretty good; and The Wailing, which is possibly excellent.
For RogerEbert.com, reviews of Approaching the Unknown, which is okay, and Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, which is a little better than okay. And yet both are awarded two-and-a-half-stars each by me, which only goes to show about the lack of nuance inherent in a star rating system but what are you going to do.
In honor of the modified vehicle in which Michelangelo, Donatello, Leonardo and Rafael pursue bad guys, here is a song called “Garbage Truck.”
Hi Glenn, long time reader first time commenter. To quickly sum up my experience reading this site: thanks for letting me on to Robert Coover and Stanley Elkin, I disagree that Inherent Vice is a very good translation of Pynchon to the screen, I agree with everything you have to say about Eastwood and even consider J. Edgar to be kind of a great movie, and I’m glad you stuck up for Hateful Eight.
Did you watch the first Turtles for fun, for work or as research for the latest film? Either way, my heart goes out to you.
Anyway, my decision to break my silence probably has nothing to do with the website I just created for my photography, http://www.weirdgeometry.com, which anyone who enjoys 35mm may enjoy taking a look at, but that doesn’t have much to do with Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Raphael, Donatello or Beck.
Thanks for the heads up – I always try to find your reviews on RogerEbert and NYT but you made it easier. Will have to see The Wailing.
Andrew wrote: ” I disagree that Inherent Vice is a very good translation of Pynchon to the screen.”
IV is the only Pynchon book I’ve read, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. That’s what made the film such a disappointment for me. Part of what made the book a fun read was the convoluted web of intrigues, characters and interactions, and the film didn’t capture that aspect very well (could any film?). Frankly, had I not read the book I would have been totally lost in the film. I respect PTA quite a bit, but IV is just a “not quite” effort. All that said, I’d be interested in watching it again now that several months have passed and see if my reaction is the same.
I know it’s not on this post, but since there was plenty of room, I had to just say that I went out and purchased the blu-ray of Dirty Grandpa, because I don’t think there’s been a film that has provoked the critics more on its initial release since oooh.…Showgirls? And guess what? I laughed a good deal more than I did than when I saw Hail Caesar! Mind you, I was prepared for the worst, as you don’t often award zero stars to anything. It’s destined for cult status and would definitely have made an interesting epilogue in your book. I didn’t laugh during Knight Of Cups.
The ‘TMNT’ sequel does at least include a positively Cronenbergian moment when Bebop and Rocksteady react with glee to their metamorphoses.