Richard jenkins

To describe Bone Tomahawk as a “horror-Western” is good shorthand, but could be a little misleading. The film indeed has horror elements but novelist turned screenwriter/director S. Craig Zahler seems more interested in spending time with his four main protagonists as they travel across country, letting their different personalities and world views, and the harshness of the terrain, challenge them on their journey

The 87th Academy Award nominations were released on January 15, 2015 representing the excellence in film for the previous year. Naturally there was the standard controversy regarding those films and performances that got unfairly overlooked. Unfortunately, the perceived snubs do happen from year to year so this goes along with the territory. Nevertheless, the lucky …

God’s Pocket Written by John Slattery and Alex Metcalf Directed by John Slattery USA, 2014 Whatever its initial intentions were, it’s now impossible to watch John Slattery’s feature directorial debut God’s Pocket without feeling intensely depressed due to the presence of its leading actor, the late Philip Seymour Hoffman. It’s not his last film overall–that’ll …

It’s not a particularly good sign that the end credits for A.C.O.D. are more revealing and poignant than the film preceding them. As the credits roll on one half of the screen, a montage of (presumably) the film’s crew members plays on the other half, as they identify as being either Adult Children of Divorce (hence the titular acronym) or not, defining when or if their parents split up, how, and why.

Some of this year’s Sundance comedy-dramas have had their narratives plucked from the wellspring of their director’s personal experience, though that should never excuse any shortcomings. Yesterday, I wrote a negative review of Francesca Gregorini’s treatment of motherhood in Emanuel and the Truth about Fishes. My primary beef was less with the inherent trauma at …

Jack Reacher Written for the screen and directed by Christopher McQuarrie USA, 2012 Jack Reacher opens with a point-of-view sniper sequence in which a lone gunman causes panic, killing multiple citizens from afar. This impressive, tense scene, as well as a few immediately following it, adds up to a completely dialogue-free opening stretch of roughly …

Killing Them Softly Directed by Andrew Dominik Written by Andrew Dominik USA, 2012 Four years after the United States economic bailout, the fallout has not abated, either among those in the 1% of earners or everyone else. And now that we have a bit of distance from the immediacy of the tanking economy, we can …

Killing Them Softly Written for the screen and directed by Andrew Dominik USA, 2012 Set against the backdrop of the 2008 US election, chunks of both major parties’ campaign rhetoric, as well as that of former President Bush, permeate select scenes of Killing Them Softly via background radios and televisions, entering like tumbleweeds rolling across …