MOVIE REVIEW: BOYHOOD Is the Definitive Coming-of-Age Film

By now, everyone is pretty aware of the radical experiment writer/director Richard Linklater has undergone with his new film, Boyhood. It's been a centerpiece of the film's marketing, and the audience I saw it with were murmuring about it before the lights went down. While I was certainly intrigued by such a risky choice, it was how Linklater would use the real-life aging of his actors in service to the story and themes that brought me to the theater, and I was not only impressed, I was in emotional awe. Boyhood is the true definition of a magnum opus. It is such an achievement that I find it challenging to try and encapsulate everything that makes it so special, but I will try.

MOVIE REVIEW: SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR Is... Yeesh

I loved Sin City when it came out in 2005. It was serendipitous that, at the same time, I was beginning to delve into the world of graphic novels, discovering the works of essential artists like Alan Moore and Frank Miller. When Sin City came out, it hit my sweet spots all across the board. It was violent, seductive, visually fresh and passionate to the point of zealotry when it came to being faithful to the source material. I rewatched Sin City recently in anticipation for the sequel, and found that, while I wasn't as enamored as I once was, I still enjoyed it. I walked into Sin City: A Dame to Kill For with measured expectations, but I guess I should have lowered them a whole lot more.

MOVIE REVIEW: GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY Makes A Han Solo Spin-Off Film Gloriously Unnecessary

While most people now associate Star Wars with a deeply mythological reverence, the original 1977 film isn't really focused on cultivating that kind of aura. Instead, it's a hodgepodge of Buck Rogers, samurai stories and pulp adventure. That spirit is mostly channeled through Han Solo, a rogue who isn't necessarily a hero, but has enough charm and good in him to become one by the film's end. That same charm and adventure has been resurrected in Guardians of the Galaxy, the first sci-fi adventure film to really capture the flavor of the original Star Wars film, while still carving out a new corner in a completely original and curiosity-empowering universe.