Young CriticDownsizing
Alexander Payne has always been a director given small budgets, focusing on personal stories that comment on a larger aspect of the human or American life. His previous works include Election, About Schmidt , The Descend
Reviews tagged: comedy
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Young CriticJumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
The video game culture has not really been captured on screen well since Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim vs. World , and even that was an unconventional fable; other films have shied away since they see video games as compe
Young CriticThe Disaster Artist
The 2003 film The Room is widely considered the worst movie ever made. Many dubbed it as “the Citizen Kane of bad movies.” The incredible character of Tommy Wiseau is the writer, director, and star of this film; his jour
Young CriticThree Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Martin McDonagh started as a playwright and after winning an Oscar for a short film he moved into directing long features, the first two of which were the great In Bruges and Seven Psycopaths . His third film continues a
Young CriticLady Bird
Adolescence is an incredible rich subject simply because it’s incredibly volatile depending on which character you focus on. John Hughes was a master at tapping into this genre, but many of these teenager-focused films s
Young CriticThor: Ragnarok
One would think that a simple formula to art and success is give a mainstream topic, a huge budget, and creative freedom to a credited unique artist. This is certainly the path that Marvel took with its most recent film
Young CriticAmerican Made
There are many true stories that leave many in disbelief at how fate works. One of those incredible stories is that of Barry Seal, an American pilot who in the 70s and 80s worked with some of the most important historica
Young CriticKingsman: The Golden Circle
When Kingsman: The Secret Service came out in 2014, it was a cultural sensation. It took on the aged spy genre, and revitalized it with a tongue-in-cheek perspective. After such critical and box office acclaim, naturall
Young CriticIngrid Goes West
In the age of today, it’s hard to not see someone on his or her phone. The social media craze is upon us, and the worst part is that only a few of us see it as a problem. Now while I’m not condemning the advancement of t
Young CriticLogan Lucky
It’s hard for Steven Soderbergh to make a bad movie. He’s the mastermind behind the incredibly enjoyable Ocean’s films, as well as the likes of Contagion, Erin Brokovich, and Traffic . Soderbergh had claimed he had reti
Young CriticThe Big Sick
Comedy is really hard. It’s a genre in cinema that is incredibly underappreciated, and yet making people laugh indirectly through a screen is one of the hardest feats any artist will ever undertake. As for finding a good
Young CriticDespicable Me 3
Illumination Entertainment is an absolute cash behemoth. They’ve only released seven films, but that has been enough to eclipse the likes of Dreamworks (which they bought through their parent company Universal) and becom
Young CriticBaby Driver
Edgar Wright is one of the few modern filmmakers than can be considered an auteur . His films all carry a very distinctive style, as recognizable as a Tarantino or Wes Anderson film. The director has also been picking hi
Young CriticSelfie (2017)
The indie genre is being rediscovered little by little. We recently got Moonlight , last year’s Academy Award Best Picture winner, which was made for under $1 million dollars (in comparison, “indie” films of today can hi
Young CriticPirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is a phenomenon quite unlike any other. The films are a spinoff of a ride in Disney World, and they’ve gone on to rake over $3 billion over four movies. The fifth film in the franch
Young CriticBaywatch (2017)
Is there anything Hollywood won’t remake? There is such a seeded fear in movie studios on betting on an original story, instead we keep getting delivered with remakes, reboots, prequels, sequels, and spin-offs; you wond
Young CriticGuardians of the Galaxy vol. 2
In order for a sequel to capture the originality of its predecessor, it has to diverge from simply copying and pasting, and branch out into an innovating and unexpected realm. Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 seemed to lea
Young CriticThe Fate of the Furious
The Fast and Furious franchise has lasted longer than anyone might have expected, including its’ filmmakers. The possible extents of the story have been stretched to its limit, finally running out in their most recent it
Young CriticT2 Trainspotting
Trainspotting was a stylistic and narrative surprise in 1996. It was the movie that essentially launched director Danny Boyle and actor Ewan McGregor’s careers. The film took a look at the working class lives of junkies
Young CriticKong: Skull Island
Every studio’s dream is to have a cinematic universe. Marvel was the first to have this success with its superhero behemoth, and Disney has moved on to making the Star Wars universe as well. The closest studio to rival
Young CriticThe Lego Batman Movie
There is an increasing super-hero fatigue in Hollywood where most stories seem recycled, the only answer to keep this genre going is to laugh at itself and not take itself too seriously. This phase was started out last F
Young CriticWhy Him?
Comedies are becoming more and more generic these days; it’s hard to find some original content anymore. One Christmas comedy we got this year was Why Him? an incredibly generic film with an impressive cast. Why Him? i
Young CriticOffice Christmas Party
While this film was marketed more or less as a Christmas movie (given the title) it is definitely much more of a party movie than anything else. And while party movies aren’t narrative geniuses, they are undeniably fun.
Young CriticThe Edge of Seventeen
Great high school movies have been hard to come by, and people have longed for the John Hughes films that so properly embodied the feeling of puberty. But the problem hasn’t been so much with the quality of today’s high