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Oppenheimer
(2023)
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Prairie Miller
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Nuclear noir spectator sports, a poison apple metaphorically intimating apocalyptic original sin, bombs, bombshells, and that buried Operation Paper Clip elephant in the room.
Posted Dec 02, 2023
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The Taste of Things
(2023)
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Prairie Miller
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Class, Cuisine And Labor As Aphrodisiac. And the best foreign film this year. While surely a reflection of Hung's life experience - returning to his native Vietnam as an adult to decipher the mystery in film of radical transformation there to socialism.
Posted Nov 29, 2023
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Killers of the Flower Moon
(2023)
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Prairie Miller
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A killer of historical truth as well. With a seeming connection dropped from the title, 'The Birth Of The FBI' - and the US continuing that not unrelated pseudo-messianic urge, millions in the world slaughtered in that deplorable bid to 'save democracy.'
Posted Nov 23, 2023
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Memory
(2023)
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Prairie Miller
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Superheroes in shabby clothing. And no longer the muscular mythologies of blockbuster saviors, rebel urges are rising from the bottom, the broken, belittled oppressed outcasts subversively redefining the 'happy ending' as rather new beginnings instead.
Posted Nov 16, 2023
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At the Gates
(2022)
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Prairie Miller
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Multiple scenarios progressively and relentlessly raise the dramatic racial tensions and claustrophobic psychological horror to a fevered pitch, that to say more would dampen the smoldering, masterfully conceived proceedings.
Posted Nov 01, 2023
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Sharper
(2023)
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Prairie Miller
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A New World Order noir in political death throes but still clinging to relevance even while withering away globally, Sharper gets it right unmasking without mercy US cutthroat culture. But a narrative scripted by Hollywood financing, namely Wall Street.
Posted Oct 26, 2023
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What You Wish For
(2023)
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Prairie Miller
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Food for thought fascism on the menu. And increasingly in films created by a younger generation, as a collective future bereft of possibility, locked into an involuntary eat the poor servitude both financially and psychologically to an oppressive system.
Posted Sep 20, 2023
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El Conde
(2023)
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Prairie Miller
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Equal Parts Pinochet And Peter Pan Noir...As the horrific history of the general turned murderous dictator gets a pass as his cinematic vampire eludes this 50 year anniversary of that 'other' 9/11, fateful Chilean coup.
Posted Sep 05, 2023
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The Attachment Diaries
(2021)
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Prairie Miller
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Dreary Depravity Noir. And while this odious banquet of lesbian torture porn may not thrill everyone in the audience - there is a distinct compatibility with the mass consciousness homicidal horrors of endless wars those audiences are living through.
Posted Jul 16, 2023
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Barbie Nation: An Unauthorized Tour
(1998)
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Prairie Miller
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Takes liberties beyond grass roots challenges to legal implications, venturing into dimensions of perspective as well. That is, perception over creation, and how even a commercial entity can be transformed when engaged with popular movement consciousness.
Posted Jun 15, 2023
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1000% Me: Growing Up Mixed
(2023)
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Prairie Miller
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The results are candid, mostly upbeat, but occasionally blistering as to their confused place in a racially confounding society. And though the space for a more expansive probe is limited by one hour, a multitude of thoughts and feelings are expressed.
Posted May 02, 2023
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Hannah Ha Ha
(2022)
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Prairie Miller
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Hopefully the Andrea Riseborough victory will unshackle the invisibility of these salt of the earth, working class regional gems of cinema - illuminating the unrecognized, unspoken lives of real people all around us, as in this slow burn existential epic.
Posted Feb 04, 2023
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She Said
(2022)
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Prairie Miller
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Sex, lies and victim porn. And an elephant in the newsroom, more self-congratulatory promo for the NY Times. While intimating a kind of fox in the hen house cover for damage control related to the paper's own numerous scandals, and as common in the media.
Posted Dec 19, 2022
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Emancipation
(2022)
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Prairie Miller
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Same slavery, different day. And Fuqua's finest contribution to 'critical race theory cinema.' In fact emancipation yet to be attained violating the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery, among the mostly millions of color incarcerated in forced slave labor.
Posted Dec 13, 2022
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Armageddon Time
(2022)
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Prairie Miller
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Critical race and class theory cinema at its finest, and a meditative descent into that coming of age troubling time of life. Though the shining light in this tough love tale is it led to that bruised but determined class conscious filmmaker - James Gray.
Posted Dec 01, 2022
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Gone in the Night
(2022)
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Prairie Miller
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A weird combo cougar shaming sci-fi horror spree buffet, don't ask, the film takes freaky fountain of youth generation gap cinema to the next level that seems to get lost somewhere along the way - whether as a confusion of plot points or genres.
Posted Aug 05, 2022
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The Forgiven
(2021)
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Prairie Miller
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Ugly Americans galore update on steroids. And a distorted inside looking out cultural perspective, a circular narrative conveying little closure. With McDonagh trapped in the befuddled, tragic figure of David, as both his designated character and persona.
Posted Jul 05, 2022
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Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
(2022)
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Prairie Miller
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Sex Work Is The New Black Mammy. And elephants in the room of invisible blackness, the 'happy slave' to only fulfill the white characters, the sexualized black male caricature - and buying a sex toy instead of all the cash spent on this pointless movie.
Posted Jun 18, 2022
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Peace in the Valley
(2022)
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Prairie Miller
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An impressive film about survivor grief that would have stood on its own - minus the questions it never asks or explores about the enormously controversial sidelined issues - rampant mass shootings plagued by the absence of gun control in this country
Posted Jun 16, 2022
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Deep in the Forest
(2021)
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Prairie Miller
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Cancel Culture Cinema Rules: An attempt to tantalize with the controversial topic of a right wing takeover in this country. But wherever their intrepid characters are headed - the filmmakers end with a decidedly timid position on their part in comparison
Posted Jun 04, 2022
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Alice
(2022)
|
Prairie Miller
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Critical race theory on steroids - and the best action hero so far this year. In other words, Right On. As for Common, Keke Palmer's trucker guiding light in this rebel road movie connecting slavery to working class oppression today - Keep on Truckin'.
Posted Mar 17, 2022
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France
(2021)
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Prairie Miller
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Dumont's mansplained femme fatale nation. And whether France the country or its failed female metaphor, all dressing literally and no substance politically, and nowhere to go. And fictitious scenario media and moviemaking alike, going along to get along.
Posted Feb 13, 2022
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The Lost Daughter
(2021)
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Prairie Miller
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Pandemic fatigue cinema rules the awards with sympathetic portrayals of repugnant self-hating protagonists, fear or mockery of the 'other' disgruntled masses rising up on the left and right, and film world dread in the downward spiraling low wage economy.
Posted Jan 01, 2022
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Small Time
(2020)
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Prairie Miller
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Emma's belly of the beast strange sanctuary may not be your own, but those plastic couches, grilled cheese suppers, drugs, guns, war on terror PTSD and constant 'praying hard' to Jesus for who knows what inexplicable salvation, could not be more palpable.
Posted Dec 29, 2021
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The Unforgivable
(2021)
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Prairie Miller
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In the US with its shameful history as the most mass incarcerated country in the world, just hand the Oscar to Bullock for her ex-con's defiant, devastating performance. And the director's keen sense of Italian neo-realism crafting this doomed landscape.
Posted Nov 25, 2021
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The Manor
(2021)
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Prairie Miller
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A refreshing trend of elderly female action heroes, Hershey still strutting her inner Boxcar Bertha seems to be no exception. And with an ironic, realistic if brutal existential weight as to conflicted life under capitalism, in this horror fantasy.
Posted Oct 09, 2021
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Karen
(2021)
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Prairie Miller
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Methinks The Karens Doth Protest Too Much. Oh and by the way, the review mocking the film's 'wailing trumpeter for some reason' - that happens to be renowned Grammy Award winning jazz musician Keyon Harrold Sr., a victim with his young son, of Soho Karen.
Posted Sep 03, 2021
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499
(2020)
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Prairie Miller
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499, Friday The 13th, and the 500 year anniversary of a doomed Mexico - and a stunning, unconventional Mexican film mixing drama and documentary, mass ideological enlightenment, and laced with poetic imaginative historical storytelling.
Posted Aug 27, 2021
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Never Gonna Snow Again
(2020)
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Prairie Miller
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Consumerism, communism, and the weather. In any case, written and directed with subversive nihilistic glee, the film teases with a combo playful and sobering prophetic perspective on the way things are, or progressively will be.
Posted Aug 05, 2021
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Mama Weed
(2020)
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Prairie Miller
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Huppert's 'arresting' charisma rules in this daring Economic Crisis Cinema gem. Flaunting a subversive female-centric literally undercover fashion statement superhero shopping spree, as the new weapon of choice scene of the crime scenario on screen.
Posted Jun 25, 2021
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Cruella
(2021)
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Prairie Miller
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A twisted tale for a cynical time. Where mean is queen, as feminism finds itself, following hopeful and inspiring origins in the late last century, at the crossroads of combo cancel culture and right wing onslaught - and endangered species irrelevance.
Posted May 27, 2021
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The Mauritanian
(2021)
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Prairie Miller
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A horror movie in every sense of the word, except that it happens to be true, the film is propelled by the phenomenal performance of Tahir Rahim, and Jodie Foster's 'kind of older Clarice Starling - very tough, but inside somebody who is a little broken.'
Posted May 19, 2021
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Painkiller
(2021)
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Prairie Miller
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Not simply another vigilante revenge thriller, though that too. As combo podcaster prophet of doom and the masked medication avenger in question Bill Oberst navigates a real life tragedy - and that other pandemic of greedy drug corporations as well.
Posted Apr 22, 2021
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Six Minutes to Midnight
(2020)
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Prairie Miller
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A bracing spy thriller harboring as much mystery as what the vintage noir setting does and doesn't explore - unraveling unintended historical intrigue implicating Britain as well. Including how that Nazi college ended up there in the first place.
Posted Mar 26, 2021
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Willy's Wonderland
(2021)
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Prairie Miller
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Turning up just in time as subversive antidote to the artificially soothing sappy Oscar bait like Nomadland and Minari, the movie hitches a ride on the wave of red state vs. blue state pandemonium in progress from this crisis ridden country to the screen.
Posted Feb 13, 2021
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Flinch
(2021)
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Prairie Miller
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Let's just say Flinch, though showcasing the conventional crime thriller, is owned by the women this time around. A more offbeat window into women saving themselves, while shaking up the seemingly forever set in stone macho mob genre
Posted Feb 01, 2021
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Fatman
(2020)
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Prairie Miller
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This best improbable holiday movie finds Mel Gibson as a late stage capitalism bad economy Santa forced to produce for the Pentagon. While revealing a seemingly penitent Gibson deferring to his perhaps reluctant feminist side and scolding spouse of color.
Posted Jan 01, 2021
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Nomadland
(2020)
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Prairie Miller
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Exploits pandemic free spirit escapist fantasy - somehow traveling the Trump train making US socio-economic misery great again. No need for statistics on homeless female murders and rapes, and with essentially characters hugging and kissing their poverty.
Posted Dec 16, 2020
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The Last Vermeer
(2019)
|
Prairie Miller
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An elephant in the room, candid interrogation of what passes for truth or fabrication and self-proclaimed moral authority in history. And fueled by the deliriously elusive, perverse and mystifying Oscar-worthy performance of Pearce. And, those eyebrows...
Posted Nov 19, 2020
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The True Adventures of Wolfboy
(2019)
|
Prairie Miller
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Wolfboy Animal Instincts Rule. This visually impressive outing harboring a cruel heart has the trappings of an enticing confection - with a toxic list of ingredients attached. And more akin to those those kid takeover "beware the children" horror movies.
Posted Nov 14, 2020
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Wuhan Wuhan
(2020)
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Prairie Miller
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Collective concern, not cash for care triumphs over the pandemic in China. And it goes without saying here that documentary directors with conviction step in as truth tellers, where the US media fear - or conspire - to tread.
Posted Oct 30, 2020
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All Joking Aside
(2019)
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Prairie Miller
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Compassionate queen of comedy portrait of young doomer bloomer comic. And a kind of equal parts satirical and sensitive contemporary updating of Shaw's Pygmalion - in this case boomer misery in creative collision with low wage millennial extreme dreams.
Posted Oct 19, 2020
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The 24th
(2020)
|
Prairie Miller
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Yet another exemplary example of persistent filmmakers of conviction stepping in to exhume a suppressed black past - where US history and the dishonest education system fear to tread. And potentially ushering in a commendable Black Renaissance in movies.
Posted Aug 22, 2020
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Emperor
(2020)
|
Prairie Miller
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Yet another greatest story never told of all too often buried courageous black history. And though released by chance in this BLM moment, Emperor could not be more timely. Along with bracing Brechtian interludes confronting essential ideological issues.
Posted Aug 19, 2020
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The Big Ugly
(2020)
|
Prairie Miller
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Move over, Ugly American, Brando or not. A gangster thriller gone global that may endure for that title if nothing else, The Big Ugly could not have grabbed US feeding frenzy imperialism more. Plus Brexit anxiety, and a rural land uprising tossed in too.
Posted Jul 30, 2020
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Dateline: Saigon
(2016)
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Prairie Miller
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Fake News, Nothing New: A rigorous and scathing chronicle of devastating defeat on two fronts simultaneously: The US War on Viet Nam, and on the US media.
Posted Jul 17, 2020
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The Tobacconist (Der trafikant)
(2018)
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Prairie Miller
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Freud, Fascism and smokers guide to surviving history. And though audiences are psychologically deprived (what would Freud say!) with its options, moments as Freud wearily crashing on his own therapy couch out of historical exasperation, are indelible.
Posted Jun 20, 2020
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Intrigo: Dear Agnes
(2019)
|
Prairie Miller
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Actors playing actors on screen to further tease noir conventions and expectations, these seductive saboteurs shake up the genre as boldly conceived feminist fatales.
Posted May 08, 2020
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Sorry We Missed You
(2019)
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Prairie Miller
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Sorry, we missed the point. Or in other words, a director of Loach's stature in need of a new screenwriter for some time. With unfortunately coincidental insight into a country that demonized Jeremy Corbyn, and got anti-workingclass Boris instead.
Posted Apr 18, 2020
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Judy & Punch
(2019)
|
Prairie Miller
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The boldly irreverent anti-patriarchal parable critiques a me-too menu of atrocities. Including mass superstition, vigilante justice, the persecution of women as witches, and a righteous uprising of designated ancient heretics, rebels and outcasts.
Posted Mar 14, 2020
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