Had the pleasure of doing a career interview with Josh Hartnett for Letterboxd Journal, speaking about a range of films from across his career, including: his surprise at being cast as a heartthrob (and taking inspiration from a high school drug dealer) in The Virgin Suicides, how 9/11 drastically changed the perspective of Black Hawk Down, what David Fincher’s original vision was for The Black Dahlia, how he brought peak Girl Dad energy to Trap, and plenty more!
I’ve loved House of Wax for 20 years, so it was a thrill to speak with director Jaume Collet-Serra and cinematographer Stephen F. Windon for Letterboxd Journal about how they pulled off the film’s many incredible deaths, the “See Paris Die” marketing, the unbelievable practical sets, that jaw-dropping climax and more.
Hell fucking yes. That’s how you do it. I wasn’t really expecting this to be my favorite of the franchise, especially not after going through all of the previous five over the weekend and being reminded how much I genuinely love the first three, but this announces itself BIG and BOLD in the opening set piece and never takes its foot off the gas. That opener is absolutely stunning, the best this franchise has had apart from the log truck,…
52 films I will watch in 2025: #22
“Honest men stay honest so long as it pays. That’s why I’m a thief and you’re a liar.”
One of only two features directed by Kirk Douglas, Posse is a Western true to its tagline. The initial setup feels like familiar territory: a tough marshal (Douglas) looks to apprehend a ruthless gang leader (Bruce Dern). But where it goes from there is entirely unexpected. The motivations of Douglas’s character are called into…
Listen, I don’t disagree with anything this movie is saying about the commodification of women’s bodies and how that intersects with ageism (both internalized and externalized) and the nature of fame in the industry. But I think it’s got a Ruben Östlund level shallowness, lack of curiosity and insistence on punishing its audience with the same tepid observations slammed in your face like concrete over and over again into oblivion.
This is somehow 2 hours and 20 minutes of movie…
Alright, listen. This movie....
I’ll say for the first half I was like, okay whatever this is fine. Sure, it’s all artifice with no depth or dimension to it. There’s no attempt at characterization beyond “woa how evil!” or “aw damn they’re so haunted.” Who are these people? What do they care about? What do they feel? Doesn’t matter because “oooo creepy and dark.” It’s just generic procedural hokum, moving through the motions without any momentum or spark of creativity.…
