adaptation

The reason Sir Kenneth Branagh’s Hercule Poirot series succeeds is through his portrayal of a man obsessed with the corporeal and his belief in human nature and its folly; no room can be made in his world for the supernatural or the impossible. He is the essence of what writer Christopher McQuarrie describes in his […]

There’s something different about the ethos which drives director/co-writer Scott Derrickson’s adaptation of Joe Hill’s short story, The Black Phone. It’s not here for gratuitous displays of gore, nor is its purpose to be content with merely scaring its audience (although there are some fairly good jump scares hidden throughout). Instead, The Black Phone rides […]

Let me get this out of the way: I have no attachments to the previous incarnations of Firestarter – neither Stephen King’s 1980 novel nor the 1984 filmed adaptation – in particular. The book was one of the first of his that I ever read, but I barely remember anything from it; I didn’t see […]

A children’s animated film which captures the snappy cool and dash of Steven Soderbergh’s Out of Sight and his Ocean’s Trilogy? I’m a sucker for heist films, so it’s not a question of “Sign me up,” but more “Give it to me. Now.” The Bad Guys – based on a series of children’s books by […]

The filmed version of In the Heights is an amped up, in-your-face, vibrant celebration of life. From the eye-popping choreography by Christopher Scott to the vivid photography by Alice Brooks capturing every nuance and bead of sweat dropped over a few of the hottest days in New York City, this film encompasses the greatest of our heart’s […]

(PLEASE NOTE: A significant plot detail is discussed in this review as a means of showing how this film differentiates itself from both the novel and its 1989 adaptation. Spoiler notices at the beginning and end of the paragraphs are included.) We each owe a death, there are no exceptions. — Stephen King, “The Green […]