[The Big Short] breaks down all that happened and took place but does so in ways that are easy to understand and simple to digest, bringing together a ragtag group of eccentrics who end up making off like bandits, even if they don’t exactly feel too good about doing so afterwards.

Problem is, little of it is clear. Worse, most of it gets drowned in so much guts and gore, not to mention irredeemably abuse and sexism, listening to it is close to impossible. The Hateful Eight has lots to love, but just as much to abhor, making it something an elegant enigma that’s as frustrating as it is impressive.

Just in time for the holidays, Cinema Squabble checks in with episode #24 (download .mp3): The big news this week? Star Wars: The Force Awakens, of course. Squabblers Sara Michelle, Brian and Adam dive right into it in non-spoiler fashion.  Plus, reviews of  The Big Short, Sisters, The Danish Girl, Joy and The Revenant. Also, […]

With “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” opening today I thought it would be fun to revisit a 2011 interview I conducted with one of the film’s biggest new stars, talented newcomer John Boyega. While I don’t intend to run these “Flashback Fridays” on a weekly basis, I do think they’ll be a fun way to look back at the Moviefreak library in ways that are both entertaining and informative. Here’s hoping you all enjoy.

The Danish Girl understands sex and gender are not the same thing, and that the former isn’t a binary construct that only allows for two norms. The options are endless, and the fact the film not only embraces this, but celebrates it, makes it as important a piece of a cinematic entertainment as any to be released this year.

But Pell’s script, inspired in no small way by her own relationship with her own sister, is so smart, so genuine, as crazy as things might get the human saga at the center remains pure and realistically heartfelt no matter what. With Poehler and Fey working at such a high level, and with the laughs being as constant, and as massive, as they prove to be, Sisters is just a joy to behold, watching it a rambunctious riot I almost didn’t want to see come to an end.

What is learned, who is who and what is what, all of it matters, not just so much in regards to the greater picture as far as the new trilogy is concerned but also as it pertains to the narrative here. The filmmakers maintain remarkable focus, a singularity of purpose, doing yeoman’s work fleshing out Rey and Finn while also giving Solo an astonishing arc no fan of the series will ever be able to forget.

Ghost Story is not the novel that inspired it. Large swaths of Peter Straub’s source material are almost unavoidably absent. But looking at it now, almost 35 years after its original release, the movie holds up rather nicely, anchored by a quartet of performance by some talented pros and some unsettling scare sequences ingeniously staged by the director John Irvin that more than impress.

Rebecca Ferguson is a star, plain and simple, and Tom Cruise’s fearlessness is still a sight to behold. But, truth be told? Rogue Nation doesn’t play near as well the second time around as it did the first. Still very entertaining. Still a good time. Just not nearly as rewatchable as the last two Mission: Impossible adventures have proven to be, and I’d be awfully remiss if I didn’t take a second or two to point that out.