@curiosity-inc
Movie Curiosities: The Whale
December 31, 2022 in Blogs, Curiosity Inc.
A few years ago, I had the pleasure to see a staged reading of Samuel D. Hunter’s “The Whale”, back when it was just a stage play that hadn’t been produced locally. And so far as I know, the play still hasn’t been staged here in Portland. But now we have The Whale, adapted by Hunter himself with Darren Aronofsky directing and a resurgent Brendan Fraser in the lead role. Read the rest of this entry →
Movie Curiosities: Matilda the Musical
December 28, 2022 in Blogs, Curiosity Inc.
Yeah, we were probably due to revisit this one. Read the rest of this entry →
Movie Curiosities: Babylon
December 27, 2022 in Blogs, Curiosity Inc.
M. Night Shyamalan. Neill Blomkamp. Tom Hooper. Film history is loaded with promising directors who came to astronomical success early in their careers, hailed by critics and filmgoers as the next great up-and-coming filmmaker, only to choke on their own arrogance as they flew too close to the sun and flamed out. It’s time to add Damien Chazelle to that same list. Read the rest of this entry →
Movie Curiosities — Avatar: The Way of Water
December 26, 2022 in Blogs
Yes, yes, I know I’m late to the party on this one. Over the past few days, there’s been an especially bad winter storm going on through half the country and it’s made going outside a really bad idea. Also, it’s the holiday season and you’ll forgive me if I’d rather go see a play or go to a White Elephant gift exchange or spend time with my family or do some last-minute shopping or do literally anything else with my precious three hours instead of watch and review a movie that’s going to gross more than the GDP of Africa regardless of what I say.
But then, while my review may be a few weeks late, Avatar: The Way of Water is at least a decade late, so there’s that. Read the rest of this entry →
Movie Curiosities: The Fabelmans
December 18, 2022 in Blogs, Curiosity Inc.
A while back, I saw a Twitter post that speculated on the effect that good marketing has on the box office. The trailer for Violent Night made a clear and well-crafted pitch, and that movie was pretty much the only one to stay in multiplexes between the respective sequels of Black Panther and Avatar. Meanwhile, the trailer for The Fabelmans was a shapeless pile of sentimental slop and that movie bombed upon release. Read the rest of this entry →
Movie Curiosities: Spirited
December 13, 2022 in Blogs, Curiosity Inc.
I’ve always wondered what was happening in the background of “A Christmas Carol”. Who and what were the Christmas Ghosts, and why did they haunt Scrooge in particular? Why did they only come around on that one special Christmas if they could’ve intervened sooner? It feels like there’s a whole other story there, happening just beyond the fringes. Read the rest of this entry →
Movie Curiosities: Violent Night
December 12, 2022 in Blogs, Curiosity Inc.
Back in 2015, there was a little movie called Krampus. It was made and marketed as a horror film that sought to comment on the modern cynical corruption of Christmas, celebrating the holiday’s more pure-hearted meanings by inverting yuletide imagery to kill off self-centered materialistic dumbfucks. And it was brought to us by Michael Dougherty, who had previously brought us Trick ‘r Treat. Read the rest of this entry →
Movie Curiosities: Lady Chatterley’s Lover (2022)
December 10, 2022 in Blogs, Curiosity Inc.
Well, here’s an odd little surprise. Then again, given how notoriously godawful Netflix is at promoting their own movies, it’s always a surprise to log in and see a noteworthy new arrival on their platform. Read the rest of this entry →
Movie Curiosities: Bones and All
December 5, 2022 in Blogs, Curiosity Inc.
Let me see if I’ve got this straight. Bones and All is a romantic drama about cannibals, it’s directed/produced by Luca Guadagnino of Call Me By Your Name infamy… and Armie Hammer is nowhere in the cast. Did anyone think to even try and call him? Because that seems like a huge missed opportunity. Read the rest of this entry →
Movie Curiosities: Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio
December 4, 2022 in Blogs, Curiosity Inc.
Nearly 15 years in development hell, and it couldn’t have been released with better timing. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is exactly what it says on the tin: a stop-motion animated feature adaptation of the classic tale. And it came out mere months after Robert Zemeckis put yet another nail in his own coffin with the catastrophic live-action remake of the Disney interpretation. Disney itself has always seemed comically desperate for everyone to forget that remake ever happened, so here comes GDT and Netflix to try and sweep the Disney fallout from our collective memory once and for all. Read the rest of this entry →
Movie Curiosities — Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
November 27, 2022 in Blogs, Curiosity Inc.
I remember back when news of a sequel to Knives Out first broke, someone I respect very much took to Twitter with the hot take that of all the characters in that movie, Benoit Blanc was the one character who least deserved a sequel. I don’t know that I ever agreed. To be sure, the aftermath of Harlan Thrombey’s death and the internecine family drama following that murder’s resolution would assuredly be fascinating, but I think I’d much rather leave them to all of that business than come along for the ride. Read the rest of this entry →
