Review: Stop Expecting Things and Let Spielberg Cook with "Disclosure Day"

By Ben Miller

Let's make an assumption, shall we? Let's assume Steven Spielberg, one of the most consistently successful and acclaimed filmmakers of the last 50 years, knows what he is doing. You might go into his new sci-fi thriller Disclosure Day expecting a certain kind of film, but that's on you, not him.

"That wasn't what I was expecting" is the death knell for films. This has very little to do with the quality of the film itself, but more to do with the marketing and filmmaker expectations. Even if your expectations were met exactly, isn't that boring? Wouldn't you rather be surprised instead of sitting in the theater for two-and-a-half hours with your arms crossed? Film should open up your expectations and show you something you weren't expecting. Spielberg subverts his own filmmaking while simultaneously conforming to it. Doesn't that sound great?

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Review: "The Devil Wears Prada 2" is a legacy sequel about how legacy is meaningless nowadays

by Cláudio Alves

Ideally, trailers and other promo are meant to sell a movie to their prospective audience, enticing and seducing butts into seats. Ideally, they'll build anticipation for a good time. Ideally, they don't make dread pool in the bellies of those who might have been excited about the project before they laid eyes on its ads. And yet, the trailers for The Devil Wears Prada 2 almost dared us to be optimistic in the face of an obvious nostalgia-drunk cash grab like so many others polluting the multiplex. Indeed, looking at the site's comment section was how I realized this predicament might be more generalized than I thought and that it wasn't just me cringing at what this sequel seemed to promise. 

So, there's bad news and good news. Starting with the negatives, there is a lot wrong with our second go-round with Andy Sachs, Miranda Priestley and the rest of the Runway magazine gang. Form-wise, even fashion-wise, the sequel's a total downgrade when it's not being a shoddy photocopy with printing errors galore, an echo on its way to becoming a structural pleonasm. However, some elements surprise, even delight, including stabs at thematic complexity nowhere to be found in the original flick, even some elegiac tones. Oh, also, Meryl Streep is in fine form, but you might have already guessed that. After all, she IS Meryl Streep…

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Venice: The Rock and Emily Blunt in "The Smashing Machine"

Elisa Giudici reporting from Venice

The Rock stars in "THE SMASHING MACHINE"

The Smashing Machine feels familiar even if you’ve never heard of Mark Kerr. That’s part of its strength: Benny Safdie takes the real story of a man who helped shape mixed martial arts and reframes it with a clarity that cuts through the clichés of the sports genre. In the late 1990s Kerr and his friend Mark Coleman (here played by MMA veteran Ryan Bader) were pioneers, carrying American fighters to Japan’s Pride tournaments; huge, almost gladiatorial events that revealed how far the sport could go. Those who came after turned that groundwork into global stardom and multimillion-dollar careers. Kerr and Coleman, instead, were the trailblazers whose brilliance was real but whose recognition was fleeting.

This film wants to correct that. At his peak, between 1997 and 2000, Kerr was an undefeated champion. Then came the spiral: defeats, opioids, psychological collapse. But what could have been yet another story of decline is reshaped here into something richer...

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Review: "The Fall Guy" Starts Summer Off Right

by Christopher James

It’s funny that a movie that’s a love letter to the unsung heroes behind our favorite movies succeeds mostly due to the star wattage of two A-Listers. Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt are a delight to watch in the otherwise sweet, but standard, action-romance-comedy The Fall Guy. Not every ingredient works, but you might miss it thanks to the commitment and charm of Gosling and Blunt. The Fall Guy is a strong way to kick off summer movie blockbuster season...

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Contemporary Costume Watch: "Pain Hustlers"

by Cláudio Alves

Where does one draw the line between period and contemporary costume design? It's hard to tell, and sometimes, it depends on the intentionality behind a given sartorial choice. Some filmmakers aim to capture the specificity of time and place, even when chronological proximity would excuse some adaptations to current sensibilities. Others forego that exactitude altogether. And then there's the way even the Costume Design Guild muddies the waters. How is the early 90s style of Rent considered period in 2005, but Precious' 1987-set narrative is still contemporary in 2009? All this to say that, for this article's purpose, let's interpret Pain Hustlers' wardrobe as a work of contemporary costume design. An outstanding one at that…

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