Category: Netflix
I Care A Lot: The most legal of scams
by Matt Ward
Thousands of senior citizens from all walks of life across the country are currently under legal guardianship, a means by which elderly individuals incapacitated from being able to make health and financial decisions for themselves. In many situations, this is in the best interest of the individual, deemed a ward of the state and assigned a caretaker to assist with financial, medical and legal … Read More I Care A Lot: The most legal of scams
Mank: Citizen Mankiewicz
by Matt Ward
Though it’s expressed as a work of fiction, film scholars commonly understand the 1941 cinema classic Citizen Kane to be an unofficial biopic of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst and the launching of Orson Welles’ film career. But the film also served as the magnum opus of social critic and Hollywood screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, a man who battled with Welles for writing credit … Read More Mank: Citizen Mankiewicz
Hillbilly Elegy: In search of Oscar gold
by Matt Ward
Hillbilly Elegy has everything awards season voters seem to want in a best picture contender. It’s a film with A-list actors giving showy performances in an adaptation of a true story from an Academy Award winning director set in the recent past that gives insight into the current political climate. There’s plenty of golden reasons why Netflix paid $45 million in January for the … Read More Hillbilly Elegy: In search of Oscar gold
Holidate: A partner for all seasons
by Matt Ward
Fresh off of Halloween and on the way to more family holidays, Netflix is bound to cash in on the dearth of end of the year films with a number of seasonally themed features. Their newest hit, which has topped the streaming service’s most-watched charts in the United States since its debut two weeks ago, is an objectively bad movie that knows its limitations … Read More Holidate: A partner for all seasons
The Trial of the Chicago 7: Turning words into actions
by Matt Ward
Cinematic wordsmith Aaron Sorkin is back at it again, with his dogged brain gushing dialogue onto script pages filled with unforgettable moments and sharp, biting lines. The man behind powerful screenplays like A Few Good Men, The Social Network and Moneyball takes his second turn behind the director’s chair, filming a script he wrote himself about the events surrounding the 1968 Democratic National Convention. … Read More The Trial of the Chicago 7: Turning words into actions
Enola Holmes: Nancy Drew she is not
by Matt Ward
Things happen to protagonists in movies. It’s what drives the plot forward and makes for compelling entertainment. But more often than not, it’s the male characters who have much or all of the agency in a film – an understood, yet not explicitly stated ability to impact or change the overall course of events. This is especially true of films directed by men, even … Read More Enola Holmes: Nancy Drew she is not
Dick Johnson is Dead: Long live Dick Johnson
by Matt Ward
How do we confront the inevitability of death? Without fail, everyone will ultimately succumb to their mortality, but when it’s staring you in the face, what is the best way of processing it? More so, is there a way to best handle the looming death of a loved one? Documentarian Kirsten Johnson tackles these questions head on in a strange, yet beautiful and uncompromising … Read More Dick Johnson is Dead: Long live Dick Johnson
The Devil All The Time: Saints and sinners soaked in blood
by Matt Ward
Fathers can pass a lot of things down to their sons: the love of a local sports team, good genes for height or a large inheritance. But it’s two wildly differing concepts – violence and religious faith – that boldly intersect in writer/director Antonio Campos’s latest film, a sprawling tale of wolves in sheep’s clothing where the purity of both saints and sinners is … Read More The Devil All The Time: Saints and sinners soaked in blood
The Social Dilemma: Unplug from the matrix
by Matt Ward
A new documentary on Netflix – currently ranked as the seventh most watched film in the United States per the streaming service – openly calls for viewers not to click on recommended videos and to make choices for themselves. It’s one of the many contradictions littered throughout director Jeff Orlowski’s strange yet insightful documentary/drama The Social Dilemma, which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film … Read More The Social Dilemma: Unplug from the matrix
Project Power: Action to tide us over
by Matt Ward
Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi drama odyssey “Tenet” released internationally this past weekend, a film that was supposed to be the big blockbuster feature to reopen movie theaters across the United States. Instead, Warner Brothers is slated to release the film on Labor Day weekend after pushing it back several times throughout the summer, leaving a gaping hole in the action-adventure genre that usually dominates June, … Read More Project Power: Action to tide us over
Tread: Mayhem in a small town
by Matt Ward
Granby, Colorado feels like the sort of small town you’d find in every state across America. Industrious, hardworking, the kind of place where neighbors know all the scuttlebutt within a few hours and there’s hardly a stranger because everyone is on a first name basis. The fact that the events depicted in director Paul Solet’s gripping documentary “Tread” could plausibly happen in any small … Read More Tread: Mayhem in a small town
Da 5 Bloods: Battle scars never fully heal
by Matt Ward
Four men – aging Vietnam vets laden with the scars of their service – return to the land that forged them in search of their fallen commander’s grave and the gold bullion that lies with it. For a filmmaker like Oliver Stone, this story would be a bombastic tale of frustration and anger boiling to the surface without much humanity under the surface. Director … Read More Da 5 Bloods: Battle scars never fully heal
Cinematic Considerations 