As “Kong: Skull Island” enters its final act, there’s a memorable exchange between anti-war photojournalist Mason Weaver (Brie Larson) and aggressively gung-ho Lieutenant Colonel Preston Packard (Samuel L. Jackson), one that more or less crystalizes the film’s intent as both a semi-remake and a standalone adventure. “The world is bigger than us,” Weaver intones melodramatically, […]
Dagger Movie Night: “Before I Fall” — Shameless “Groundhog Day” Rip-Off Feels Like Déjà Vu
One could make the very compelling argument that “Before I Fall” is an example of audience participation filmmaking. Shallow and popular high school student Samantha (Zoey Deutch) spends the entire runtime reliving the day of the car accident that killed her; the audience spends the entire runtime reliving the movie “Groundhog Day.” This shameless remake/rip-off […]
Dagger Movie Night: “Get Out” — A ‘White Guilt’ Film Torn Between Camp and Horror
Horror films are notoriously difficult to review. It’s a genre predicated on the ability to shock and surprise, which means reading a write-up like this one is sort of like getting the punchline before the joke. However, in the case of “Get Out,” if you’ve already seen the trailer, you’ve seen just about every plot […]
Dagger Movie Night: “A United Kingdom” — Cheesy Oscar Bait, But Good and Honest Cheese
Behold the fabled Prestige Film! There are some for whom this hook is repellant: the worm dangling like a flaccid organ, poised to ejaculate manipulative emotion like award-attracting pheromones. Look at the pretty British actors! Playing people who were significantly less pretty in real life! Sprinkle contrivance and season the historical record with Hollywood tropes, […]
Dagger Movie Night: “Fist Fight” — A Lot of Jokes About Fighting, But Missing a Punchline
One of the very last images we’re treated to at the end of 2017’s first alleged comedy is a literal pile of horse shit. Don’t ask why, and don’t ask how; it really doesn’t matter. What matters is that it’s there, and that the camera tilts down to see it: a visual metaphor that manages […]
Dagger Movie Night: “Fifty Shades Darker” — Is Female Subjugation Still Sexy in Trump’s America?
You might have heard about this story everyone’s talking about on TV, on the radio, or around the water cooler: all about this rich, creepy weirdo who uses his money and inherited power to objectify and possess women, even going so far as to commit sexual assault in public locations? No, I’m not talking about […]
Dagger Movie Night: “The LEGO Batman Movie” – Lighthearted Superheroics That Don’t Wear Out Their Welcome
Welcome to the age of the Comic Book Movie, an era in which no child (or adult) is at risk of being shoved into a locker for knowing the backstories and minutiae of even the lowest-ranking superhero from the respective Marvel and DC pantheons; if anything, we as parents are morally obligated to keep our […]
For Movie Lovers, Harford County Public Library Offers Binge Boxes
From the Harford County Public Library: If you are a movie lover, Harford County Public Library has a new offering just for you–binge boxes. Binge boxes feature six movies in categories such as Disney Classics, detective noir, classic westerns, French cinema, ballet, classic monsters and more. Some of the boxes include Abbott and Costello, Sean […]
