film Archives - The Life Cinematic

The Lighthouse Review

Written by Tucker R. King on December 22, 2019. Posted in Movies. Leave a Comment

Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse is a film about two people slowly going mad. Not only that, the film pushes you to the edge of sanity, too. Through sound design and filmmaking style, the film evokes the feeling of watching someone else’s fever-induced nightmare. The constant crashing of...

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Review

Written by Tucker R. King on December 20, 2019. Posted in Movies. Leave a Comment

Forty-two years after the original film changed cinema forever, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker comes along to put a cap on the core nine-film Star Wars saga. Whatever you thought of 2017’s The Last Jedi, that film felt like it was trying to build a new house on old ground. The Rise of Skywalker...

Knives Out Review

Written by Tucker R. King on December 4, 2019. Posted in Movies. Leave a Comment

Rian Johnson’s Knives Out is, in my book, the most purely entertaining film of the year (sorry, Avengers: Endgame). Every twist and turn of this carefully crafted whodunnit is thrilling. And not only is this film a tight little mystery story, but it also has a bit of scathing social commentary...

Rocketman Review

Written by Tucker R. King on June 10, 2019. Posted in Movies. Leave a Comment

Following last year’s disappointing and problematic Bohemian Rhapsody, I found it hard to have high expectations for Rocketman. For one, the (uncredited) director of Bohemian Rhapsody, Dexter Fletcher was helming this film. Add that to the fact that I had never really listened to Elton John’s...

Avengers: Endgame Review

Written by Tucker R. King on April 29, 2019. Posted in Movies. Leave a Comment

Avengers: Endgame is the 22nd installment in the monolithic Marvel Cinematic Universe, and serves as the culmination of a decade of blockbuster filmmaking, marking the results of years of work from thousands of people. It is a film made up of dozens of colliding plot lines, and familiar heroes from...

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Review

Written by Tucker R. King on December 19, 2018. Posted in Movies. Leave a Comment

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is a pure blast of creative joy and easily the best superhero film to come out in 2018. Despite being rooted in a vividly specific, recognizable New York, and as close as it hews to comic-book imagery as it does, Spider-Verse is a wonderfully trippy, dreamlike adventure....

Blaze Review

Written by Tucker R. King on October 19, 2018. Posted in Movies. Leave a Comment

Blaze, the latest effort from director Ethan Hawke, is an easy-to-like biopic filled with country-spun wisdom like “Rain doesn’t try to fall, it just falls.” Clearly inspired by his work on the Chet Baker biopic Born to be Blue, Hawke’s new film attempts to chronicle the life...

Sorry to Bother You Review

Written by Tucker R. King on July 27, 2018. Posted in Movies. Leave a Comment

Sorry to Bother You, the directorial debut from Boots Riley, is an adrenaline-pumping comedy and a dissection of identity politics, corporate malevolence, and the American tendency to ignore horror and look the other way. In this clever satire, folks gather around their televisions every night to...

Won’t You Be My Neighbor? Review

Written by Tucker R. King on July 24, 2018. Posted in Movies. Leave a Comment

Won’t You Be My Neighbor? chronicles the life of Fred McFeely Rogers, Presbyterian minister, children’s television show host, and the most loveable Republican since Abe Lincoln. From 1968 to 2001, Mr. Rogers kept children out of their parents’ hair by offering a half-hour program...

Hereditary Review

Written by Tucker R. King on July 10, 2018. Posted in Movies. Leave a Comment

Hereditary is a film one should avoid describing in detail, as it would not only ruin surprises but also give the impression that you are describing a fever dream rather than a film. The movie sustains and resonates with a sense of dread throughout its first 90 minutes; the final 30 are off-the-rails...

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