Kurt Loder
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Articles by Kurt Loder
'Tragedy Girls': Brianna Hildebrand and Alexandra Shipp are unlicensed to kill in a giddy teen slasher flick
"Tragedy Girls" must have been a nifty elevator pitch: two enterprising teens with a true-crime website decide to start providing their own content. That's it. Just in time for Halloween. Teen slasher comedies are nothing new, but Tragedy Girls is merrily goosed along by the BFF chemistry between its two stars, Brianna Hildebrand (the Negasonic Teenage Warhead from "Deadpool") and Alexandra Shipp (Storm in "X-Men: Apocalypse").
'Tragedy Girls': Brianna Hildebrand and Alexandra Shipp Are Unlicensed to Kill in a Giddy Teen Slasher Flick
"Tragedy Girls" must have been a nifty elevator pitch: two enterprising teens with a true-crime website decide to start providing their own content. That's it. Just in time for Halloween. Teen slasher comedies are nothing new, but Tragedy Girls is merrily goosed along by the BFF chemistry between its two stars, Brianna Hildebrand (the Negasonic Teenage Warhead from "Deadpool") and Alexandra Shipp (Storm in "X-Men: Apocalypse").
'The Witch': Meet the Devil
For a horror movie, "The Witch" isn't especially horrifying, but it's a masterful exercise in godforsaken atmosphere. Set in Puritan Massachusetts in the year 1630, it presents us with a world in which Satan is real, if only because everyone believes him to be.
'Allied': Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard in a Retro Wartime Romance
Is there some great unslaked popular hankering for a wartime romance along the lines of Casablanca? If so, "Allied" is unlikely to slake it. The movie actually begins in Casablanca, but that's as far as the resemblance goes. And while the picture recalls the Nazi-infested marital intrigue of Alfred Hitchcock's 1946 Notorious, it's probably best not to get your hopes up in that regard either.
'Jackie': Natalie Portman in a Stillborn Bio-Snippet From the Kennedy Years
Just returned from Dallas, where her husband was assassinated as he sat by her side in the back of a presidential limo, Jacqueline Kennedy finds herself surrounded by people with little help to offer. A reporter, summoned by the widow to the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port, asks, "What did the bullets sound like?" Her brother-in-law suggests she see a priest, and while Jackie is reluctant ("Bobby, I want to talk to the press,") a priest is duly wheeled in.
Am 9/11 verschwand mein Viertel
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Am 9/11 verschwand mein Viertel
Der folgende Artikel erschien in der Ausgabe des ROLLING STONE vom 25. Oktober 2001. Ich glaube, ich habe mein kleines Downtown-Viertel mehr geliebt, als mir je bewusst war. Die Straßencafés entlang der West Broadway. Die begrünte Promenade am Hudson River. Die Kopfsteinpflasterstraßen, die koreanischen Spätis, der große Borders-Buchladen nur fünf Minuten zu Fuß die Church Street hinunter, wo ich so viele Morgen durch die Regale gestöbert hatte.
On 9/11, My Neighborhood Vanished Original
The following article appeared in the Oct. 25, 2001, issue of Rolling Stone. I guess I loved my little downtown neighborhood more than I ever realized. The outdoor cafes along West Broadway. The grassy promenade along the Hudson River. The cobblestone side streets, the all-night Korean delis, the big Borders bookstore just a five-minute walk down Church Street, where I’d spent so many mornings poring over the shelves.
'Christine': Rebecca Hall Is Darkly Brilliant in a True-Life Story of Death on the Airwaves
Director Antonio Campos's "Christine" tells the story — or as much of it as possible — of Christine Chubbuck, the first person to commit suicide on live TV. There's no uncertainty about how the movie will end — with a sudden gunshot and a spray of blood — but it doesn't feast on that final scene. The picture's main intent is to probe what little is known about its subject and her sad, conflicted life.
'Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children': Tim Burton back in nearly top form
With "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children," Tim Burton delivers his most winningly crafted fantasy film in years. The movie has lots of digital imagery, but little of the visual bombast of his overstuffed "Alice in Wonderland." Burton does fabricate some outsize monsters — towering, tentacle-mouthed horrors called Hollowgasts — but for the most part he deploys CGI in the service of gorgeous scenes and memorable images. The movie is a bit overextended, but it's always great to look at.
'Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children': Tim Burton Back in Nearly Top Form
With "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children," Tim Burton delivers his most winningly crafted fantasy film in years. The movie has lots of digital imagery, but little of the visual bombast of his overstuffed "Alice in Wonderland." Burton does fabricate some outsize monsters — towering, tentacle-mouthed horrors called Hollowgasts — but for the most part he deploys CGI in the service of gorgeous scenes and memorable images. The movie is a bit overextended, but it's always great to look at.
'Tickled': Much Stranger Than Fiction
You'd think that any film that kicked off in the world of fetish tickling videos would be content to stick with its colorful subject. But "Tickled," a head-spinning documentary that begins on the fringes of that strange scene — with hunky young guys being held down by other hunky young guys to have their nipples flicked and their feet feathered — is just getting started. In peeling back the layers of its bizarre story, the picture grows dark, and then much darker, and more and more disturbing.
'20th Century Women': Annette Bening and a Top Cast Are in Peak Form in One of 2016's Best Movies
"20th Century Women" tells a coming-of-age story in which even the grown-ups are still coming of age. The movie is set in Santa Barbara, California, in 1979. (The punk-heavy soundtrack kicks off with Talking Heads' "Don't Worry About the Government.") We meet the main characters in brisk succession. Dorothea Fields (the great Annette Bening), long-divorced and now 55, has maintained a cockeyed openness to life, although she's emotionally walled-off from what it's done to her.
'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.
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