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“Ben-Hur” Fails to Champion Its Raison d’Etre
Ben-Hur (Timur Bekmambetov, 2016) American Civil War Hero Lewis Wallace – or General Lew Wallace, as he is most often known – published what would become a mega-bestseller, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the...
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“War Dogs” Offers Mostly Great Satire of Our Military/Industrial Complex
War Dogs (Todd Phillips, 2016) Todd Phillips is the man responsible for giving us all three Hangover films. I loved the first one but hated the second, and therefore avoided the third. As they went...
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“Hell or High Water” Is a Brilliant Existential Western Crime Thriller
Hell or High Water (David Mackenzie, 2016) It’s early morning in West Texas. The camera drifts lazily over and through the low-rise buildings of a small town, nondescript and empty in the morning. A...
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“Roughly Speaking” Podcast on Hollywood Epics, “Ben-Hur,”“Hell or High Water”...
Today, Linda DeLibero – Director, Film and Media Studies, Johns Hopkins University – and Christopher Llewellyn Reed (that’s me) – Chair and Professor, Department of Film & Moving Image, Stevenson...
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Criterion’s “Muriel” + “A Tale of Love and Darkness” + Tracy Droz Tragos x2...
In the past two weeks, Hammer to Nail published three reviews of mine – of two movies just released and one brand-new Criterion Collection Blu-ray disc – plus one interview, with director Tracy Droz...
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Better Late Than Never, Summer 2016 Edition: “Kubo and the Two...
Every year, there are films that I miss seeing when they first come out (usually because I am unable to attend the press screening), and so I never write a review for them. Sometimes, however, I try to...
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“Hands of Stone” Throws a Punch, Takes a Beating
Hands of Stone (Jonathan Jakubowicz, 2016) Venezuelan actor Edgar Ramírez (Carlos) stars as famed Panamanian boxer Roberto Durán in Hands of Stone, a new biopic from Venezuelan director Jonathan...
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Criterion’s “Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words”&“Ivan’s Childhood” +...
In the past two weeks, Hammer to Nail published four reviews of mine, of two Criterion Collection Blu-ray releases and two new movies out in theaters and VOD. Here are the links to all four pieces:...
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Reviews of “The IF Project,”“The Light Between Oceans”&“Morgan” @filmfesttoday
I am now writing for Film Festival Today, where I hope to see my reviews of more mainstream, wide-release films published from now on. This week, FFT published two such reviews of mine, today, plus a...
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Reviews of “Sully” on Dan Rodricks’s “Roughly Speaking Podcast” and on “Film...
Two reviews of Clint Eastwood’s recent Sully for you, the one on Dan Rodricks’ Roughly Speaking podcast for The Baltimore Sun, and the other on Film Festival Today. Enjoy!
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“Reel Talk”– with Chris Reed and Hannah Buchdahl – on Films of Summer 2016,...
Welcome to the first episode of the 2016-2017 season of Dragon Digital Media‘s Reel Talk with Christopher Llewellyn Reed . My guest this time was Hannah Buchdahl, co-founder of the website...
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In “Snowden,” Oliver Stone Returns to Form to Warn Us of the Great Danger of...
Snowden (Oliver Stone, 2016) Despite a prolific filmmaking career that began in the 1970s, picked up in the 1980s and then really kicked into high gear with the one-two-three knockout blow of Platoon...
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Something Wicked This Way Comes … Sort of: The Comme-Ci/Comme Ça Appeal of...
[Note: This review will also soon post at Film Festival Today, and when it does, I will link to it.] Blair Witch (Adam Wingard, 2016) Neither particularly exceptional nor exceptionally dumb, Blair...
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“The Next Generation in Film” @bmoreart
Today, BmoreArt published my article on the Creative Alliance‘s annual “Best of Baltimore Student Film” showcase, featuring interviews with Film Programmer Samantha Mitchell (left, above) and Managing...
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Reviews of “Diverge,”“Miss Stevens” and “Silicon Cowboys” + Interview with...
In the past two weeks, Hammer to Nail published three reviews of mine, plus one interview (with director Kathlyn Horan, of The If Project). Here are the links to all four pieces: Diverge review...
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“Magnificent Seven” Falls Short of Its Titular Aspirations, Yet Gets the Job...
[Note: This review will also appear on Film Festival Today, and when it does, I will link to it here.] Magnificent Seven (Antoine Fuqua, 2016) Acclaimed Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa released his...
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“Queen of Katwe” Offers Inspiration, In Spite of Formula
Queen of Katwe (Mira Nair, 2016) From Indian-American director Mira Nair (The Namesake) comes this sweet , if also saccharine, tale of how one very talented and smart, if also desperately poor, Ugandan...
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In “Goat,” Bucks Misbehave
[Note: This review will also appear on Film Festival Today, and when it does, I will link to it here.] Goat (Andrew Neel, 2016) Based on Brad Land’s 2004 memoir of the same name, Goat tells a tale of...
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3 New Pieces: @filmfesttoday on Tribeca Film Institute + @hammertonail on...
I had three new pieces published this week on two of the sites for which I write, Film Festival Today and Hammer to Nail. One was a profile of the grant opportunities available for indie and emerging...
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Uneven, Yet Rousing, “The Birth of a Nation” Offers Narrative Agency to Nat...
The Birth of a Nation (Nate Parker, 2016) A fiery mix of Haile Gerima’s 1993 cinematic bloodbath Sankofa, which profiles a West Indian slave uprising, and Steve McQueen’s 2013 meditative 12 Years a...
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