"I've learned that it's not just a wrestling show."
- Bret 'The Hitman' Hart
It may not be possible to render professional wrestling into any more of a high concept drama than Hitman Hart: Wrestling With Shadows. This may be the summit for all of pro wrestling for all time. The Citizen Kane of pro wrestling, basically. There is obviously Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler which comes to mind in terms of any discussion involving notable wrestling-based art. The Wrestler is…
Perhaps one of the greatest documentaries ever made. And produced on a relative shoestring budget of fifty thousand dollars. Lightning...no... the 'perfect wave' in a 'bottle', here? Maybe so. Certainly no other surf film has the legacy of The Endless Summer and that is for good reason aside from the fact that it is one of the earliest surf films produced that was not merely frivolous commodification like Gidget or Beach Blanket Bingo. No, this was something real. Its conception…
[The original one star rating here was reactionary towards the initial undeserved and unqualified praise this film received. Which is an unfair way to go about judging a film. That said, Everything Everywhere All at Once remains an overrated mess in my eyes.
Perhaps never before has there been a more insistent fan base surrounding a film-- with many in the ranks claiming that any detractors are either trolling or just simply do not 'get it'. As though nihilism is…
Considering the original Top Gun stands today as...frankly...little more than nostalgic 80s novelty fluff (endearing fluff but 'fluff' nonetheless), what Tom Cruise and company were able to do with this effort in terms of not only action sequences but story depth is nothing short of impressive. Top Gun: Maverick somehow...almost implausibly...easily 'tops' the beloved original. Not so much a surprise on account of the quality of the first film but rather, because one would not expect any depth to be…
