Glen Powell goes chameleonic in Hit Man
Glen Powell goes chameleonic in Hit Man

Hit Man, the latest from Austin’s own director Richard Linklater and actor Glen Powell, looks like the opposite of film noir, particularly as described by Schrader, at first. It’is a funny, sexy, sunny character study, in which Powell and co-star Adria Arjona build a thorny romance that turns on curiosity as much as it does attraction. Powell’s mild-mannered philosophy professor Gary Johnson, who’s moonlightsing as an imposter hitman for the New Orleans Police Department, provides a chance for him to go both broad and deep. It’s consistently a hoot.

Read More
ReviewsJustin HarrisonComment
Film Notes: Pink Flamingos / Female Trouble
Film Notes: Pink Flamingos / Female Trouble

In all of cinema’s short history, has there ever been another joke as filthy, funny, perverse – and of course, well-earned – as the canonization of John Waters? At this exact moment, you can go out and spend forty hard-earned dollars on a “culturally important” boutique Blu-ray of a film which concludes on a cross-dresser eating literal, actual dog turds. If there's a more beautiful representation of the lurking good taste which occasionally threatens to puncture the bubble of our stolid society, I've yet to see it. But then again, Pink Flamingos was never about good taste.

Read More
Film NotesMorgan HydeJohn Waters, Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble, Divine, Desperate Living, Polyester, Hairspray, Serial Mom, Cecil B. DementedComment
Furiosa’s Mythmaking Roars
Furiosa’s Mythmaking Roars

George Miller and company’s Mad Max movies run on a variety of tensions, and from these tensions arises impeccably staged set pieces, striking character work, and narrative flexibility in the form of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.

Read More
ReviewsJustin HarrisonGeorge Miller, Mad Max, Max Rockatansky, Furiosa, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Anya Taylor-Joy, Alyla Browne, Chris Hemsworth, Nick Lathouris, Charlee Fraser, Lachy Hulme, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Tom BurkeComment
A Walk In A Killer’s Shoes, or, The In A Violent Nature Review
A Walk In A Killer’s Shoes, or, The In A Violent Nature Review

What if Terrence Malick (Days of Heaven, Knight of Cups) took on Friday the 13th? That conceit is the backbone of Chris Nash’s In A Violent Nature, which on paper comes across as a spiritual sequel to that one Saturday Night Live sketch of Wes Anderson making a home invasion horror movie. Pairing wistfully beautiful shots of the Canadian wilderness with over-the-top violence and gore, In A Violent Nature becomes just a bit more than Mad Libs creation.

Read More
ReviewsJustin Norrischris nash, in a violent natureComment
Baby Blood: Make Pregnancy Gross Again
Baby Blood: Make Pregnancy Gross Again

Baby Blood transgressively counters the ever so nauseating idealized, kitsch aesthetic of pregnancy that we are accustomed to. The kitsch aesthetic of pregnancy arises out of societal expectations of what a mother should be, transforming what is a neutral occurrence into a moral imperative. The horror aesthetic in Baby Blood turns these expectations on their head, creating a narrative that encourages the pregnant character to refuse all repressive expectations of motherhood and pregnancy she encounters.

Read More
Analysis, ReviewsShayna NowickiBaby Blood, Alain RobakComment