Category: Reviews

Apocalypse Later: Ad Astra Redux

I just want to start by saying I didn’t want to watch this film. It’s not that the film looked bad, cheesy, or uninteresting, but I don’t exactly have an affinity for a typical-seeming space adventure. Gravity was cool to see on the big screen, but not on a television. Life was all nihilism and no hope. Ad Astra seemed like somewhere in-between Deep Impact and Space Cowboys. It’s time to admit that I was wrong to doubt this film. Overview James Gray‘s newest film thrusts Brad Pitt into the eternal void from which there is no escape except a good ol’ fashioned cathartic father-son relationship. Roy McBride (Pitt) is an accomplished astronaut living in the somewhere near future, where commercial flights to the moon and Mars are no longer atypical (thanks, Richard Branson). Following a fatal accident where he was one of the only survivors, McBride is brought in

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The Willenial Criterion Library

I think I first discovered the Criterion Collection sometime in high school. I consistently went to Bull Moose (which I still claim as my second home) and perused their endless selection of DVDs. Every once in a while, I would see the bold white “C” of the Criterion logo on the spine of a film case. I was curious as to what that meant and why certain films would be embossed with this sigil of “Great Filmitude”. After scouring the internet, I felt educated enough to make some conscious choices about which Criterion-distributed films I would seek out for myself. Some films received their Will Lane Stamp of Approval and ended up somewhere in my collection for one reason or another. Some films received their Will Lane Stamp of Approval and ended up somewhere in my collection for one reason or another. Godzilla (1954) My childhood was full of b-movie

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