Anotherfilmnerd looks at a film so bleak, even Lars von Trier would probably find it a bit much.

Each month, for those Graffiti readers unsure of where else they can find my reviews, I'll be collecting them into a single post. This is so that you can catch up without having to scroll through a series of  #OneHeatMinute Live adverts and making uncomfortable choices between great movies to find where else I've been published.

Anotherfilmnerd looks at the “remix” of “Arrested Development” Season Four… a re-edit that simultaneously improves on the original cut while magnifying its flaws.

“Molly’s Game” is a stranger than fiction story that’s hamstrung by the artifice of Sorkin’s formal craft; and there’s no doubt that it’s the lesser Jessica. “Miss Sloane is a fictional political thriller told with dynamism and craft.

Tradecraft for a female spy has the dark reality of being required to use sex as a weapon, or at least a distraction to penetrate (no pun intended) the guard of a foe. Francis Lawrence’s “Red Sparrow,” a crisply shot, contemporary spy thriller tackles the harsh sexual and psychological manipulation require to be a successful espionage asset.

Each month, for those Graffiti readers unsure of where else they can find my reviews, I'll be collecting them into a single post. This is so that you can catch up without having to scroll through a series of "Friday Night Lights" appreciation tweets and #OneHeatMinute episode notifications to find where else I've been published.

Kenneth Branagh’s adaptation of Agatha Christie’s “Murder on the Orient Express” is a top shelf whodunnit played out with crisp pace and crackles, thanks to a cache of intentionally opaque performances from a prestige cast including Penélope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Michelle Pfeiffer, Judi Dench, Olivia Colman, Daisy Ridley and Josh Gad. Branagh has orchestrated the perfect actor/director vehicle for himself that finds the perfect tone between prestige and pulp cinema.

Waititi takes the characters in “Thor: Ragnarok” and makes them act in precisely the way he feels it’s worth his time in this sandbox. “Brigsby Bear” is literally about a guy taking the show that defined his young life (and ended on a cliff-hanger) and giving it the ending that he feels it deserved.

“Black Panther” is an avalanche, a nexus for underrepresented voices to be thrust into the throne. The superhero genre grew up a decade ago, with the arrival of “Iron Man” and “The Dark Knight”; and since then it’s rarely elevated out of an escapist arrested development.

“The Shape of Water” is a sumptuous ode to movies, to love  and to monsters, or as Del Toro calls them, our “patron saints of imperfection.”  “Bright” is not a good film

Jim & Andy is an experience that left me reeling. Carrey may have a touch of madness, but there’s no doubt that’s the burden of great genius. 

Welcome to 18-52, a weekly review column that tackles two current releases on your cinema screen and in your stream. This week “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” (2017) & Dave Chappelle: Equanimity & The Bird Revelation (2018)

“Justice League” is a mutant.

“The Last Jedi” is absolutely the “Star Wars” film we deserved and didn’t expect. The prequels, stand alone “story” films and even the animated series considered canon are a frustratingly repetitious and revisionist cycle. “The Last Jedi” is not a crude predictable entry to the series; Rian Johnson has delivered a luminous spark that’s left the future of the franchise looking bright.

“The Untamed” is a collision of Stanley Kubrick’s style and Pedro Almodovar’s contemporary social melodrama. The Kubrickian influences manifest in dizzying atmospherics, sensory deprivation and crashing waves of alien worlds weaved into the sound design. The Almodovar flair comes in the watching of this powder keg of intertwined relationships.

There’s a kind of rare documentary about a film that enhances and arguably eclipses its subject. “Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse,” a behind the scenes look at the madness that forged the masterful “Apocalypse Now” was the primary example; until now.

Let’s find out if the second fitting of the Kingsman’s self-aware spy garb still makes the cut; and discuss the harrowing, controversial and ambitious thriller from Darren Aronofsky starring Jennifer Lawrence.

There’s not going to be a more stunningly composed film this year than “Blade Runner 2049”. Director Denis Villeneuve and cinematographer Roger Deakins have crafted a remarkable, immersive, sensory experience that embraces you wholly. For the cast Ryan Gosling, Sylvia Hoeks, Harrison Ford and Jared Leto, each scene comes with mood altering atmosphere. The world of “Blade Runner 2049” doesn’t feel like a creation rather that it exists and Villeneuve and Deakins have created a viewing portal into a prospective future. 

Raul Peck’s Oscar nominated documentary is a manifestation of the profound intellect of author and activist James Arthur Baldwin. “I Am Not Your Negro,” is possibly one of the most revelatory, insightful and prescient visual documents on civil rights and race that has ever been committed to screen.