Kurt Loder
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Articles by Kurt Loder
'Doctor Strange': Benedict Cumberbatch Pumps New Life Into the Ever-Expanding Marvel Universe
"Doctor Strange" signals the launch of what could be a very fun franchise. The movie isn't perfect — it's the origin story of a character from the Marvel JV universe, so there's setup involved; and it's a little light in the villain department; and the rampant computer imagery — some of it pretty spectacular — is maybe a little too rampant.
'Arrival': Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner on alien saving time
"Arrival" is a thinking human's alien-invasion movie. The mood is austere, the story oblique (at first), and the invading aliens are somewhat obscured by a home-world mist they've brought down to Earth with them. Serious humans will be happy to know there's no cheap sci-fi action. All of this is a little problematic, though.
'Spider-Man: Homecoming': Tom Holland Brings the Weary Web-Slinger Back to Life
Another bleedin' Spider-Man movie, you say? "Homecoming" is the second attempt in five years to reboot this wobbly franchise — and it might do the trick. For one thing, thanks to some desperate corporate deal-making, Spidey is now officially a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which enables cross-promotional high-fives by fellow Avengers Iron Man and Captain America.
'La La Land': Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone in a Lush New Kind of Movie Musical
Damien Chazelle's "La La Land" takes the standard objection to movie musicals — Why are all these people suddenly bursting into song? — and confronts it head-on in its opening scene. We see one of those from-here-to-the-horizon traffic jams on an L.A. freeway, with trapped motorists muttering in the sun. Then one woman starts singing. Then she's joined by others as they climb out of their cars and begin dancing around and on top of them. Why are they doing this?
'Captain America: Civil War': Avengers Reassemble
Spoiler note: Those wishing to know nothing about a movie prior to seeing it might want to steer clear of reviews before doing so. "Captain America: Civil War" is packed with enough blockbuster super-stuff — scads of characters, oodles of travelogue mileage and acres of eye-punishing shaky-cam action — to fuel two movies. But "Civil War" is of course only one movie, and so its excess of just about everything overwhelms its virtues.
'Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping': Andy Samberg and His Lonely Island Pals in Solid-Gold Form
If scene-wrecking satire were enough to actually wreck the pop-hip-hop showbiz scene, then "Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping" would do the job. Unfortunately, key artifacts of this bloated cultural sphere — the nitwit rhymes, the oozing insincerity, the Justin Bieber tour documentaries — are now doing the job themselves. But if they ever stop never stopping (and of course they will ... right?), this movie could take some retrospective credit.
'Suicide Squad': Margot Robbie and Will Smith Trapped in a Droopy Super-Mess
Sitting through "Suicide Squad" is like looking forward to Christmas all year and then waking up on the big day to find Santa Claus sprawled out dead under your tree. The movie is a major disappointment, especially since we've been living with its insistent marketing since last summer, when the film's snappy trailer was unveiled at Comic-Con. As we now see, virtually every lively moment in the picture is in that trailer. The rest of the finished product is all letdown.
'Rose of Nevada': Storm Warning.
Somewhere in Cornwall, on the stormy southwest coast of England, there's a village where people have lost track of time. It's not much of a place, hardly worthy of a name; but once things were different here. Once the surrounding waters were thick with fish and the people prospered. The local pub was filled with dancing and laughter. It wasn't so long ago, really. Today things are different. Today, the village streets are near-empty and the pub is home to solitary whisky-sippers.
'Carolina Caroline': Blonde on the Run.
A guy, a girl, a gun — the classic setup for a bullet-riddled crime flick. In the 1950 "Gun Crazy," a series of bad decisions made by a firearms aficionado named Bart (John Dall) and his full-on gun-nut wife Laurie (eternal noir pinup Peggy Cummins) set them both on the road to perdition (the usual destination in these pictures).
'Backrooms': Welcome to Hell.
You are here. The middle of nowhere. Over there, a shabby building — a faded, failing furniture store called, for no evident reason, "Cap'n Clark's Ottoman Empire." There's a sale going on. Apparently everything must go. That's what you see on the outside. On the inside of this store, as you'll soon learn, are the bowels of Hell. "Backrooms" is a howling, masterfully made horror movie drawn from the disturbing "creepypasta" precincts of the internet.
'Tuner': Silence Please., by Kurt Loder
"Tuner" is an ambitious low-budget indie fueled by two kinds of star power — one old-school, the other seductively new. The leads, Leo Woodall and Havana Rose Liu, aren't newbies, exactly — Woodall built considerable momentum in S2 of "The White Lotus" and Liu was already memorable in the high school lesbian comedy "Bottoms." But here they step forward fully formed in a ... how to describe it? ... rom-com/heist flick/sorta musical set in the little-explored world of New York piano tuners.
'The Wizard of the Kremlin': Top Dogski.
"The Wizard of the Kremlin" is a slow-drag chronicle of the rise of Vladimir Putin in the wild-west days of post-Soviet Russia. (Those unfamiliar with this period might want to do a little Wikipedia catch-up before braving the film.) The story begins in Moscow in 2019, with a political schemer named Baranov (Paul Dano) relating his many years of behind-the-scenes governmental machinations to a visiting American academic named Rowland (Jeffrey Wright).
'The Sheep Detectives': Not Just for Kids.
No one should bother doing knockoffs of the beloved "Babe" movies of the 1990s. Those Australian classics have a storybook charm that is probably unmatchable, and any crass attempt to replicate it would surely make talking-pig devotees very grumpy. That said, however, a new English movie called "The Sheep Detectives," which takes for its own loquacious livestock a flock of the woolly ruminants of the title, has a warm and somewhat complex appeal that's very much its own.
'The Devil Wears Prada 2': Not Quite as Good, but Not Bad.
The new "Devil Wears Prada" sequel, swanning into theaters 20 years after the release of the first film, offers four things very worth revisiting. The first is Meryl Streep, back in designer harness as Miranda Priestly, the frosty editor-in-chief of the rag-trade bible Runway (basically Vogue, you'll recall).
'Over Your Dead Body': Masters of Mayhem.
Just when you think that "Over Your Dead Body" has gone as far as it can down the road of blood-spattered hilarity — past the introductory hammers and hacksaws and spools of binding tape, past the requisite quart bottle of chloroform — just when you think the movie can't go any further into this world of gritty hard-R ... that's when it goes there.
'Normal': Bob Odenkirk Takes More Bad Guys by Surprise.
Very much like Hutch Mansell, the semiretired assassin he plays in the "Nobody" movies, Ulysses Richardson, the itinerant lawman Bob Odenkirk embodies in the new "Normal," is an easy guy to underestimate. He's soft-spoken and kindly; but give him a military-grade chatter gun and he'll mow down whoever you want gone. "Normal" is Odenkirk's latest step into Liam Neeson territory, a world policed by middle-aged hardies who can capture your heart or, if necessary, kick your butt.
'Faces of Death': The New Batch.
Back in 1978, long before it was possible to call up internet footage of jihadis beheading bound prisoners and burning people alive, "Faces of Death" was a gruesome sensation. Prior to this notorious documentary (well, "documentary"), seekers after cinematic carnage generally had to content themselves with European mondo movies and the early slasher films of pioneering hacks like Herschell Gordon Lewis. "Faces of Death" was different.
'Our Hero, Balthazar': Murder.com.
Oscar Boyson was a producer on the Safdie brothers' head-spinning nervous-breakdown movies "Good Time" and "Uncut Gems." Now, directing and cowriting his own first feature, Boyson manifests some of the Safdies' spine-tingling approach to spikey material with a picture that was initially turned down for competition at the Sundance and South by Southwest film festivals. Finally, one year after its completion, the movie is opening in theaters.
'Tow': Long Hard Road.
With her blazing performance in last year's "If I Had Legs I'd Kick You" still fresh in Oscar-nom memory, Rose Byrne is gripping yet again in "Tow," a movie poorly served by its terrible title. I saw it last Saturday night, the day after it opened, in a theater with three, maybe four other people. We were pretty well served, for the most part.
'Project Hail Mary': Lost in Space Revisited.
Ryland Grace is having a very bad day. Ryland is a middle school science teacher and he just woke up in outer space. Way-outer space, on a rocket ship floating silently through vast star fields. He's not alone, exactly — he has two crewmates, but they're both dead in their cryo-pods. What the hell?
'The Bride!': Unalive., by Kurt Loder
One good thing that can be said of Maggie Gyllenhaal's "The Bride!" — a movie not overburdened with good things — is that it features a ferociously committed (or perhaps exhaustingly demented, your call) lead performance by Jessie Buckley. The movie is ... not a remake, but basically a feminist riff on James Whale's 1935 "Bride of Frankenstein," which was the sequel to Whale's 1931 horror landmark "Frankenstein," which was of course based on Mary Shelley's 1818 novel of more or less the same name.
Ozzfest To Return in 2027 Says Sharon Osbourne
Ozzy Osbourne's widow and manger Sharon Osbourne says that it likely that Ozzfest will return in 2027, with the beloved festival kicking off at the site of Back To The Beginning event and then hitting the United States. Sharon discussed the plans with her son Jack on the latest episode of The Osbournes podcast. Jack asked Sharon about the plans to bring back the touring metal festival and she said that the plan is for Sharon: "2027 Aston Villa [Villa Park in Birmingham, UK].
'EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert': The Return of the King., by Kurt Loder
It's true that gods once walked among us — sometimes, as we now know, in Las Vegas. By 1969, one such exalted being, Elvis Presley, had enjoyed a cloudburst of early stardom on Sun Records and world-conquering renown on RCA-Victor; then he did a hitch in the Army and endured a yearslong sojourn in Hollywood, where he was compelled to appear in movies that ranged from not-bad to quite bad indeed. Then, in 1968, he made a resounding return to music with a celebrated comeback TV special.
'Redux Redux': Worlds of Hurt., by Kurt Loder
We get underway with a woman standing in a desert. At her feet is a man tied tightly to a chair. The chair has been tipped over. The man is on fire, howling in agony. The woman looks on expressionlessly. She might be watching a chess match. "Redux Redux" is a sci-fi thriller of the multiverse variety, but don't scamper off.
'Crime 101': Chris Hemsworth and Monica Barbaro in an Artfully Sunlit Noir., by Kurt Loder
Like many a successful criminal, probably, Mike Davis (Chris Hemsworth) is a man of no fixed address. You could say he lives on the 101 — the long interstate highway that runs from Los Angeles up into Washington state, occasionally connecting with the beachy Pacific Coast Highway. Davis is a high-end jewel thief who operates out of a succession of oceanfront condos he rents every few months to set up his latest capers.
'Dracula': The Never-Ending Story., by Kurt Loder
What is there left to be done with Dracula? Since his birth in a book more than a hundred years ago, the world's most famous Transylvanian emigre has cast his spell on both Broadway (an early teaming with Bela Lugosi) and radio (assisted by Orson Welles). But his true home has long been in movies, beginning with the classic (if now musty) Universal Pictures breakthrough in 1931, and continuing into the 1970s with a series of increasingly strained Hammer horrors starring Christopher Lee.
'Mercy': Back to the Future With Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson., by Kurt Loder
The problem with "Mercy," the new high-concept action-trash movie from director Timur Bekmambetov, is that the concept and the action are too trashy even for a Bekmambetov project. Those who've been entertained by this Kazakh filmmaker in the past — probably by his 2008 hit "Wanted," with Angelina Jolie, although almost certainly not his uber-silly "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" (2012) — may thrill at first to all the screens and smartphones and cop-cam footage on display here.
'28 Years Later: The Bone Temple': Hell on Earth Again., by Kurt Loder
"28 Years Later: The Bone Temple" is the fourth installment of Danny Boyle's long-running zombie franchise, and it doesn't disappoint. Writer Alex Garland is still onboard tending the story, and while Boyle has handed off cinematic control to a fresh director, Nia DaCosta ("Candyman"), her taste for bloody mayhem is nearly the equal of his.
'Dead Man's Wire': True-ish Crime., by Kurt Loder
Tony Kiritsis fought the law and the law won. This may seem like a weak premise for a high-tension hostage drama, but with "Dead Man's Wire," director Gus Van Sant has turned the Kiritsis case, a true-crime media sensation back in the 1970s, into a comical screw-the-rich underdog tale. He has done this by boldly adjusting substantial facts in the story, which may be an annoyance for those who know them.
Oscars, Maybe ... : An Incomplete List of This Year's Possible Picks., by Kurt Loder
I don't know if you realized this, but the Oscars are only 10 weeks away. How excited are you? Not very? A long time ago, back in the 1980s and '90s, the annual Academy Awards ceremony in some years might draw a national TV audience of more than 50 million people. Last year, with the movie industry still wobbling from the COVID-19 pandemic, the figure was under 20 million.
'Marty Supreme': The Pong Show., by Kurt Loder
Over the course of their decade-plus as a filmmaking team, the Safdie brothers, Josh and Benny, evolved a hair-raising cinematic sensibility. "Uncut Gems," their 2019 breakout, suggested what it might be like to be strapped onto the front of a runaway train with your eyelids stapled to your forehead and your lips flibbering wetly in the wind. It was a whole new kind of night out at the movies.
'Dust Bunny': Bryan Fuller Comes Close to Making a Fantasy Classic., by Kurt Loder
Evicting a monster from under your bed is no longer the childhood nightmare it used to be. In scarier times, the afflicted kid might have had to appeal for parental assistance — always the least likely source of relief — or maybe improvise some "Home Alone"-style household armaments. In desperation, the unlucky tyke might have needed to hire a fairytale lawyer — a major pain, as you might imagine.
'Left-Handed Girl': The Kids Are All Night., by Kurt Loder
The characters at the center of "Left-Handed Girl" are like individual stations of the cross on a long road to womanhood. Little I-Jing, for example. I-Jing is 5 years old, and when we meet her she's is moving to the Taiwanese capital of Taipei with her mother and older sister. I-Jing's face is like a sun and a moon at once, open and hopeful, and everything she sees is beautiful. "Mom!" she shouts as her mother, behind the wheel of a packed moving truck, steers them into the new city.
'The Carpenter's Son': Hell on Earth., by Kurt Loder
How stoked would you be to see a movie about a teenage Jesus and his creepy new friend, Satan? Especially if the cast included Nicolas Cage (although not, alas, in the Jesus role), and extra-especially if the picture were also a horror movie? How quickly would you be making a beeline for Fandango to nail down a seat for the next screening of such a sure-to-be cult classic? Well, hold up a minute.
'Nuremberg': Twilight of the Monsters., by Kurt Loder
"Let's talk about Hitler," says Douglas Kelley (Rami Malek), voicing one of several creaky bits of dialogue in writer-director James Vanderbilt's new World War II drama, "Nuremberg." Kelley is a U.S. Army psychiatrist chatting up a new client, the cunning, froglike Hermann Goring (Russell Crowe), founder of the Nazi Gestapo and currently imprisoned in a cell block at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice.
'Bugonia': Swat Team., by Kurt Loder
The actual bug alluded to in the title of the new Yorgos Lanthimos movie is the humble honeybee, that tireless insect whose pollinating peregrinations keep the Earth's greenery going and grocery aisles stocked. The human characters, however, are the truly buggy ones — they're clearly not right in the head. Well, maybe. For example, Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone, fully onboard for her fourth Lanthimos film).
'A House of Dynamite': Do It Again., by Kurt Loder
Although it's packed to the gills with fine actors — among them Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Tracy Letts and Jared Harris — the true star of "A House of Dynamite," the new Kathryn Bigelow movie, is the gush of tech talk and military war-speak that propels it forward, and stands in for a story.
'If I Had Legs I'd Kick You': Rose Byrne Rules., by Kurt Loder
"If I Had Legs I'd Kick You" would qualify as a horror movie if it had a monster lurking somewhere in the protagonist's house instead of inside her head. Writer-director Mary Bronstein's second feature (after a 17-year professional hiatus) has dark Lynchian visual elements and an emotional atmosphere that echoes the nerve-scraping work of the Safdie brothers, both of whom acted in her 2008 debut, "Yeast," and one of whom, Josh Safdie, is a producer here.
'The Smashing Machine': Raw Power., by Kurt Loder
It's understandable that "The Smashing Machine," a new movie by Benny Safdie, might put you in mind of Darren Aronofsky's great 2008 film, "The Wrestler." Unfortunately, what it most strongly recalls about that movie is its rich emotional glow, and especially its poignant lead performance by Mickey Rourke. Compared to that earlier picture, this new one, also set in the world of professional grappling, feels skimpy and routine. Which is not to say it has no heart of its own.
'One Battle After Another': In and Out of the Past With Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn., by Kurt Loder
Any director hoping to arouse the action audience for a new movie might want to come up with a more kickass title than "One Battle After Another." But that's what Paul Thomas Anderson has settled on for his latest film, which is loosely adapted from Thomas Pynchon's 1990 novel "Vineland" (an even less tantalizing title possibility).
'Him' and 'A Big Bold Beautiful Journey': Tales from the Black List., by Kurt Loder
The Black List is an annual movie-biz survey of unproduced screenplays that insiders believe are worthy of being bought and made into movies.
'Spinal Tap II: The End Continues': Reeling in the Years., by Kurt Loder
Let's say it's 1984, and you've made a perfect movie.
'The Baltimorons': Love and Standup., by Kurt Loder
It's a little early to be talking up Christmas movies, I know, but "The Baltimorons" could become a seasonal classic, so let's discuss. The picture stars no one you're likely to have encountered at the local megaplex before, and it was probably made for the Hollywood equivalent of a handful of subway tokens. But the movie gets over on pure charm, and if you take the time to see it now, it can inhabit your heart until this year's Yuletide actually arrives.
'Caught Stealing': Crime Travel., by Kurt Loder
Darren Aronofsky's new movie, "Caught Stealing," is set in 1998, the same year the director made his feature-film debut with the raw, grimy "Pi." Like that one, the new movie feels plugged directly into a rough, tabloid version of New York City, one that no longer entirely exists. Leading us around Manhattan's scrabbly Lower East Side, he resurrects the period squalor — sidewalks piled high with mounds of black-bagged garbage — and long-gone hipster landmarks like Kim's Video.
'Honey Don't!': Noir Lite., by Kurt Loder
It sounds like a fun idea: Let's make a private-eye movie like they did back in the day — something along the lines of "The Maltese Falcon," with a twisty plot and one-of-a-kind shifty characters. Only instead of the world-weary flatfoot played by Humphrey Bogart, we'll have ... a chipper lesbian, why not? Call her Honey O'Donahue.
'Nobody 2': Bob Odenkirk Back on the Beat., by Kurt Loder
Hutch Mansell is back, and he's still full of surprises. Outwardly a mild suburban work-a-daddy, Hutch (Bob Odenkirk) is actually a retired assassin from one of the government's lethal undercover agencies (FBI, CIA, one of those). Most people would never suspect this to look at him, in his cargo shorts and scruffy sandals, but as his wife, Becca (Connie Nielsen), says, harking back to the day they first met, "I knew you were dangerous.
'Weapons': Suffer the Little Children., by Kurt Loder
The only thing you're liable to find lacking in "Weapons" is lore. Otherwise, the movie checks just about every box on the horror inventory. As it begins, you'll quickly learn what has happened to date.
'The Naked Gun': Laugh Attack., by Kurt Loder
In "The Naked Gun," we come upon nincompoop police detective Frank Drebin Jr. (Liam Neeson) doing what he does best — screwing everything up beyond all hope of repair. This time, at least, he has managed to derail a bank heist; however, within moments we see him shanking robbers with a sharpened lollipop while wearing a massively inappropriate pleated schoolgirl skirt. Frank is not one of L.A.'s finest — although for many, many years, no one has seemed to notice, much less care.
'The Fantastic Four: First Steps': Back From the Dead., by Kurt Loder
The new Fantastic Four movie is the best of the generally awful Fantastic Four movies to date. If you had the good luck to have missed the 2007 "Rise of the Silver Surfer," which focused bizarrely on wedding preparations for the union of Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman, you may not care that in "The Fantastic Four: First Steps," this super twosome is preparing to welcome a baby. That's right. I feel you making plans to skip this installment of the stumbling FF franchise as well.
'Sovereign': American Paranoid., by Kurt Loder
In the world of Jerry Kane (Nick Offerman), the government is an implacable enemy. Jerry promotes this view on the conspiracy-oriented radio shows on which he sometimes guests, and in the traveling seminars he hosts as he drives around Arkansas and environs in his little white van. "If you're a U.S. citizen," he tells one gathering in a rural American Legion hall, "you're the property of the District of Columbia.
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