[ The following essay contains MAJOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! ] Lancelot du lac  both begins and ends with scenes of shockingly graphic violence. Two knights clad in cumbersome suits of armor clash on a desolate battlefield, so thoroughly exhausted that they can barely lift their weapons. Finally, one combatant lands a decisive blow, beheading his opponent with one last desperate flail of his sword; the decapitated corpse collapses in a limp heap, gushing blood onto t

[The following review contains MINOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] In a Violent Nature revolves around a novel enough premise: what if...

[The following list contains MAJOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] Way back in 2020, I wrote: I firmly believe that a villain is only...

[The following essay contains SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] You either lose your mind or die. No in between. That quote is Cyberpunk:...

[The following essay contains MINOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] Over the course of his career, David Cronenberg has become...

[The following review contains MINOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] It took me way too long to discover Grosse Pointe Blank. Which...

[WARNING: The following essay contains MAJOR SPOILERS for 13 Assassins, Skyfall, Django Unchained, and Avengers: Endgame.] What defines a...

Ventured out to Metrograph to catch a screening of the gorgeous new 4K restoration of Fruit Chan’s Made in Hong Kong. This stylish,...

1917 is a breathtaking technical achievement. Producing a “single-take” movie (even one as obviously stitched-together as this—not a...

I’ve decided to revisit my House of Bamboo review because I somehow forgot to mention that it features one of the most realistically...

[The following review contains SPOILERS; you have been warned!] If the poetry of violence is a language in and of itself, then Martin...

“Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” isn't merely a title; it's a mission statement. It immediately evokes a vivid image, promising a celebration and/or...

The original Harakiri (1962) is an uncompromisingly uncomfortable film, a scathing criticism of the fetishization of bushido in general...

As much as I love the “classic” Western, it’s been fascinating to witness how such innovative filmmakers as Quentin Tarantino and the...

A good action scene does not exist for its own sake; rather, it is the culmination of the screenwriter’s meticulously-laid groundwork....

By the end of The Walking Dead’s seventh season premiere, Rick Grimes is a broken man. And it’s his own damn fault. And as I watched the...

From the opening frame to the end credits, a cloud of impending doom hovers over Fruitvale Station—not only because the visual language...

The remake of Red Dawn truly is a war movie for the Call of Duty generation, too preoccupied with the spectacle of bloodshed to...

Man, woman; white, black, Filipino; farmer, college boy–under the leadership of Earth’s “Federation,” all are finally equal....

It ends with a tight close-up on the sweat-drenched face of fencing instructor Araki Mataemon (Toshiro Mifune, a far more versatile...