50 Book Pledge #6: Philip Pullman — The Golden Compass

Having seen and quickly forgotten the decent 2007 adaptation of this book, I never got around to its source material, which is a shame becau...

Brian De Palma: Redacted

The mainstream view of Brian De Palma's 2000s output is anything but flattering, with all four of his films made in the new millennium b...

Brian De Palma: The Black Dahlia

Building off the moral investigation of film noir that characterized his Femme Fatale , Brian De Palma's The Black Dahlia  is a grim, s...

Robert K. Massie — Catherine the Great

This could have been a great text. Instead, it feels more like a very good introduction to Catherine II for middle schoolers, maybe high-sch...

Undefeated (Daniel Lindsay & T.J. Martin, 2012)

Undefeated  doesn't reinvent the sports documentary, but it does add depth to the genre with an unyielding focus on the people over the ...

Steven Spielberg: Catch Me if You Can

The brilliant opening credits of Catch Me if You Can  encapsulate the spirit and tenor of the film to follow with magnificent conciseness. A...

Michael (Markus Schleinzer, 2012)

The latest filmmaker to springboard off of working for Michael Haneke into a solo career, Markus Schleinzer tries to copy his boss' skil...

Steven Spielberg: Minority Report

Filmed from March to July 2001, Minority Report  was not influenced by the September 11 attacks later that year, yet retrospectively it seem...

Haywire (Steven Soderbergh, 2012)

Haywire  displays nearly all the traits of a modern Steven Soderbergh movie. It sports an A-list cast seemingly game for anything. It jet se...

50 Book Pledge #5: Albert Camus — The Stranger

A short novel, but the way Camus writes, it'd breeze by at six times the length. His spare style nevertheless burrows deep into his cryp...

50 Book Pledge #4: Robert K. Massie — Catherine the Great

I can't really talk about this at present, as I'm meant to review this intriguing but occasionally narrow-minded biography for Spect...

Brian De Palma: Femme Fatale

After the reception of Mission to Mars  took some of the wind out of De Palma's sails, Femme Fatale  represented a more modestly scaled ...

Albert Nobbs (Rodrigo Garcia, 2011)

Well, Albert Nobbs  could have been worse, I guess. It could have been offensively opinionated about gender identity and made a play for a t...