Was going to hold this script to run the episode closer to Ramadan, but it suddenly felt more pertinent to do it now.

So. As many of you are no doubt aware, I’m currently in production on the next installment of “Really That Good,” the subject of which is THE MATRIX.

As you might imagine, THE MATRIX is a particular daunting target for analysis because it’s so densely layered with symbolism and reference but also because so much has already been written, blogged, vlogged etc about it – so it’s easy to get lost in the noise doing even basic research. Also complicating matters: The cultural understanding of the film/franchise keeps shifting as we come to know more about the extremely private Wachowskis as filmmakers and as individual persons.

With that in mind, I’m reaching out to my diverse and well-informed readership for some help on this one: Continue reading →

“We get some closure, a final battle and yet another new twist in Alice’s backstory which is actually pretty clever and might even have felt pretty substantive regarding the mythos and build-up if they hadn’t already reworked whatever her backstory was supposed to be three or four times before this.” — Full review available on Geek.com

Been waiting on a real look at this one for some time – looks like it won’t disappoint. The bare premise is a winner: Two former High School enemies meet again by chance as adults in the upscale NYC social scene and immediately resume violently beating the shit out of eachother; but  the trailer seems to give away an interesting degree of just how absurdly the story is supposed to spin out from there. Looking forward to the reception on this one.

Full piece available on ScreenRant. Excerpt:

“If the goal here is to ruffle Hollywood’s stuffed shirts, wouldn’t taking the wind out of an audience-beloved weepie (think Forrest Gump) or an arthouse prestige piece (think Nocturnal Animals) have greater effect than tossing one more egg at something “everyone” already agrees is bad? Nevermind how history can change the broad understanding of a film; for example, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining received two Razzie nominations, while Paul Verhoeven’s Showgirls was dubbed the “Worst Picture” of 1995 – yet in the present, the film is typically seen as more of a subversive cult-classic (whose director just helmed the freshly Oscar-nominated Elle).”

Read the full column here.

Full piece available on ScreenRant. Excerpt:

“A big part of what Supergirl rather openly (and, seemingly, very intentionally) shared with the Clinton campaign was an outlook “narrative” that held feminism, globalist/cosmopolitan diversity, and other so-called “social justice” causes as battles that had already been “won” – at least on a cultural level – and now had to be defended from an angry minority that wanted to see those victories reversed. In Supergirl, that angry minority is CADMUS, and they lose their fights on a semi-weekly basis. In reality, the views and movements CADMUS is framed as an analog to just pushed their candidate into the White House.”

Read the full column here.

Well… this looks like a thing.

In case you’re late to the party (or just forgot) this Walter Hill joint was originally called TOMBOY and briefly re-titled as RE-ASSIGNMENT. Shot a year or two ago, it’s a Grindhouse-ish intentionally-trashy deal where the “hook” is that Michelle Rodriguez is playing a male hitman (“Frank Kitchen” – holy shit!) who, after a job goes bad, wakes up to discover that an evil surgeon (Sigourney Weaver) with an unnamed grudge against him has performed unwanted gender-reassignment surgery on him – in other words, he wakes up “as” Michelle Rodriguez, but still acting/talking/fighting/ like a snarky mas-macho hitman.

Yeah. Continue reading →

Yeah, I like it. Not too much else to be said at this point (Lucasfilm’s approach to hyping these things seems to be minimizing the potential for speculation so that the fanboys don’t cook up too many theories that the film can’t “live up to”) but it’s a good title that carries with it a certain amount of mystery i.e. who/what “The Last Jedi” actually refers to.

My off-the-cuff guess? They want you think “Oh, it’s Rey,” but it’ll be Luke. Continue reading →