Buzz Bissinger worked as an investigative reporter, winning a Pulitzer Prize for his work tackling corruption in the Philadelphia court system. But his 1990 book Friday Night Lights is widely considered one of the best sportswriting pieces ever, and the cinematic version of the story won the Best Espy for Sports Films in 2004. His…
In the sequel to the 2019 breakout hit Shazam! we see the Billy Batson-turned-Shazam hero (Zachary Levi) struggling with his relatively new-found powers and the scattering of his family due to age and changing priorities. He longs to retain his childhood but also explore freedom as a semi-adult. When two daughters of Titan, Hespera and…
Before Michael Keaton, Christian Bale, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, Ben Affleck, or Robert Pattinson donned the cowl, before Tobey Maguire discovered great power webslinging through New York, before Hulk smashed the puny god in Avengers tower or Thanos snapped, Christopher Reeve and director Richard Donner paved the way for every superhero film that has come…
I was skeptical of Champions at first, the English remake of a Spanish film about a basketball coach rehabbing his career after a drug-involved arrest that nets him community service as a coach for some adults with special needs. It’s too easy to find stories like these in super shallow waters, making fun of the…
I am a little surprised at how “high”-ly I’d rate Cocaine Bear. I imagined it would be worth a laugh or two, and have a few memorable bear-versus-human battles, but I never imagined that I would actually recommend it to people. Directed by Elizabeth Banks and produced by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, it has…
The stack of 4K Ultra HD films on my desk kept growing, and thanks to spring break (yes, it’s still a thing for adults with kids!), I was able to wade through the extensive list of films that had arrived over the last few weeks. There was a newer classic – Antoine Fuqua’s Training Day,…
Jason Sudeikis’ Ted Lasso is my spirit animal. I want to be like him when I grow up. Maybe not the mustache and disdain for English tea… In the third season, which fans have had to wait over a year for, Ted Lasso delivers his son to the airport, and begins to question why he…
Sports films can become pretty formulaic – underdog team trains hard, persists through a beautiful sweaty montage, and beats the big-time school with its big-time players. In the new documentary All In: Miracle at St. Bernard’s takes the action on the field into a bigger stage where the fate of a Catholic high school hangs…
Not everyone smoothly segues from stage direction to cinematic work, as the touch and feel of the different mediums vary in nuanced ways. But in Lila Neugebauer’s transition from the theater to her film debut, she pulls off an intimate feeling film that explores serious subjects in our society today with a delicate touch that…
Four Christmas favorites arrived last week in stunning 4K HD. Now old fans and fans-in-the-making can tackle the stories of Ralphie, Buddy, Clark, and Billy, in the highest clarity possible. Read on for special features and brief synopses – just in case you’ve been stuck in the woods without internet or television for the last…
