Lee Landey
Criticism, Cultural Commentary, Prose and Copywriting
Ridley Scott Re-Storms the Arena With Gladiator II
Since the earliest beginnings of Ridley Scott’s storied career, the now 86-year-old Brit has positioned himself as a purveyor of two things: the science fiction epic and the historical epic. Since 1977, with a tirelessness rarely paralleled in the industry, Scott has released one or another of these on a nearly annual basis.
Saturday Night Is Rather Sketchy
There’s nothing special about a bad movie. Dozens hit theaters every year. But Saturday Night, the new film from writer/director Jason Reitman is not just bad – it’s annoying. And that’s a unique feat.
Hilarious, Heartbreaking Anora Achieves Dramatic Magic
Writer/director (and editor, and producer) Sean Baker, long known for his humanizing portraits of sex workers and other marginalized groups, has honed his treatment of those subjects for more than two decades. The dedication shows.
The Apprentice Briskly Sketches Trump’s Early Years
Though releasing a dramatic film about Donald Trump in October of an election year could be construed as opportunistic timing, according to director Ali Abbasi his new project The Apprentice has been in the works since 2019.
Megalopolis: Coppola’s Clumsy, Kooky Kaleidoscope
It is impossible to talk about Megalopolis without talking about Francis Ford Coppola. One of the founding fathers of New Hollywood, his resume is famous; yet it bears repeating to frame the confounding, fitfully enjoyable mess he has newly presented.
Eureka: Vast Visionary Hills, Scattered Gold
Eureka, the newest film from Argentinian writer/director Lisandro Alonso, is an odd bird. Traversing time, space and cinematic form, the 147-minute effort attempts to relate the Indigenous American experience across different eras through a triptych of loosely connected vignettes. While the idea is formally interesting, and the effort admirable, it is hampered by a merciless adherence to slow cinema. The end result is so lethargic that it fails to capitalize on its fertile settings and subject.
The Substance‘s Insanely Powerful Body Horror
“Body horror,” like “shoegaze,” would probably have been better off had it never become a genre. Just as alt-rock became a whack-a-mole of cheap shoegaze and flat post-punk, each passing year yields a new crop of wannabe provocateurs who believe that some squishy sounds and fleshy close-ups will elevate their stylish, vapid works to cult status. However! – unlike other recent, limp attempts (see: Infinity Pool (2023), Love Lies Bleeding (2024)), writer/director Coralie Fargeat’s new body horror ep...
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Unleashes Flair, Gusto, and Joy
Tim Burton has always been an anomaly. It’s rare that a visionary director, especially with an aesthetic formula as decisive as his, gets to play with the kind of budgets which for Burton are routine. Still, given his nearly unmatched pedigree molding both original ideas and IP into peculiar shapes that maintain mass appeal, it makes sense. The man knows what to do with a fat pocketbook, and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is no exception.
Blink Twice Is Not All Right
Early in the production of Blink Twice, Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut, the thriller (penned by Kravitz and E.T. Feigenbaum) had the working title Pussy Island. It wasn’t until focus groups and the MPAA voiced their disapproval that Kravitz changed the film’s title to its generic, double-shut-eye alternative. Ironically, Pussy Island evokes a playful film, a provocative film, one that takes chances and aims to push boundaries. All things Blink Twice fails to do. Filmed mostly in the Yucatán penin...
Hip Hop Hooray for Irish Kneecap
As Kneecap cheekily reminds us in its opening moments, it would be nearly impossible to tell a modern Irish story without mention of civil strife.
Stuck in the Spin Cycle With Twisters
In our shifting, cynical landscape, with superheroes on the decline, studios are scrambling for the next moneymaker.
With Kinds of Kindness, Yorgos Lanthimos Is King of Rulebreakers
“Kafkaesque,” much like “Lynchian,” has lost virtually all meaning in today’s vernacular.
Yorgos Lanthimos’ Kinds of Kindness comes as close as any film of the modern era to exemplifying the actual mode of Kafka, and it does so through the late Bohemian’s favorite medium: the short story.
Yorgos Lanthimos’ Kinds of Kindness comes as close as any film of the modern era to exemplifying the actual mode of Kafka, and it does so through the late Bohemian’s favorite medium: the short story.
Shadow of the Erdtree: A Huge, And Hugely Difficult, Game DLC
For Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, Japan’s FromSoftware had to meet a bar that seemed impossibly high.
Kaufman on Kaufman: A Retrospective Q&A
Few screenwriters, living or dead, have achieved the status of household name.
Charlie Kaufman, the maverick behind some of the millennium’s most memorable films, is one of those few. While he has since directed three features, Kaufman’s directorial debut would not come until he had established himself as one of America’s preeminent penmen for the screen. Though, like his characters, I’m unsure he enjoys the distinction.
Charlie Kaufman, the maverick behind some of the millennium’s most memorable films, is one of those few. While he has since directed three features, Kaufman’s directorial debut would not come until he had established himself as one of America’s preeminent penmen for the screen. Though, like his characters, I’m unsure he enjoys the distinction.
Nature Interfaced, Interrupted, and Obstructed
Evil Does Not Exist is an allegory. For what exactly, it’s difficult to say.
Helmed by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, the writer/director of 2021’s Oscar-winning Drive My Car, Evil begins at much the same pace as Hamaguchi’s prior film. That is to say, slowly. When reviewing his filmography before writing this, I discovered that while still in college Hamaguchi shot his own remake of Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris. It’s an ethos that has clearly seen him through.
Helmed by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, the writer/director of 2021’s Oscar-winning Drive My Car, Evil begins at much the same pace as Hamaguchi’s prior film. That is to say, slowly. When reviewing his filmography before writing this, I discovered that while still in college Hamaguchi shot his own remake of Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris. It’s an ethos that has clearly seen him through.
The Joyful Smash Shot of Challengers
Tennis is having a moment. Be it through an uptick in socially distant athletics over the pandemic, Netflix’s Break Point docuseries, the insidious rise of pickleball, or something altogether more mysterious, the USTA reports participation in the sport grew by a staggering 33% from 2020 to 2022. Tournament attendance is likewise breaking records with each passing year. There’s no accounting for vibes.
How a Speech’s Backlash Deepened The Zone of Interest
Of directors whose work began in my lifetime, I can count on one hand those I esteem as highly as Jonathan Glazer.
Glazer’s background is in music videos, directing memorable pieces through the 1990s for UK royalty like Radiohead, Massive Attack and Blur. His feature debut came in 2000 with Sexy Beast, a phantasmagoric take on the British crime epic which garnered Ben Kingsley an Oscar nom.
Glazer’s background is in music videos, directing memorable pieces through the 1990s for UK royalty like Radiohead, Massive Attack and Blur. His feature debut came in 2000 with Sexy Beast, a phantasmagoric take on the British crime epic which garnered Ben Kingsley an Oscar nom.
Why I Play Elden Ring (And You Should Too)
With Elden Ring’s first expansion on the horizon and anticipation at a fever pitch, we’ve put together a primer on the beloved, increasingly accessible Souls video game franchise.
What is a Souls game? Is Elden Ring the same as Dark Souls? Do those questions mean nothing to you? That’s okay too!
What is a Souls game? Is Elden Ring the same as Dark Souls? Do those questions mean nothing to you? That’s okay too!
Pull 5 Phenomenal Sci-Fi Films into Your Orbit
Science fiction casts a broad umbrella. From Alien to Star Wars to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the term can mean virtually anything, so long as it denotes a speculative, non-magical framework for storytelling. As renowned author and editor Damon Knight once observed, “Science fiction is what we point to when we say it.”
Lee Landey / Various Artists "The Long Morning" BOOK + CD [CH-370]
Camp, horror and history collide in this expansive debut, a maelstrom of paranoid science fiction from the Chondritic stalwart. From neo-noir, to vampires in space, to the 1893 World’s Fair, Landey weaves a sequence of interconnected tales to sicken and bewilder, to assuage and deform. Literary, playful, full of love and fear, it is a collection for today and tomorrow.
‘Beast’ (Blu-ray review) - Forces of Geek
Watching Baltasar Kormákur’s Beast is an exercise in expectation management. Its goals are as simple as its title.
This is a film wherein Idris Elba punches a lion in the face.
If that’s not what you’re in the mood for, look elsewhere.
That said, a lovely cast, some decent plot turns and well-constructed moments of suspense uplift what could have been a far inferior slog.
This is a film wherein Idris Elba punches a lion in the face.
If that’s not what you’re in the mood for, look elsewhere.
That said, a lovely cast, some decent plot turns and well-constructed moments of suspense uplift what could have been a far inferior slog.
‘Bullet Train’ (Blu-ray review) - Forces of Geek
Based on Japanese novelist Kotaro Isaka’s Maria Beetle, Bullet Train is a violent romp confined, as one might suspect, to its titular conveyance. Straying from the source material most especially in its volume of westerners, it stars Brad Pitt as Ladybug, an American assassin code-named for his incredible luck, or lack thereof.
‘Dig’ (review) - Forces of Geek
Asher Levin’s Dig is a film about a violent man in search of redemption. It is a well-trodden path.
You would be forgiven for confusing 2022’s Dig for The Dig (2021), The Dig (2017), Dig (2015), or even Dig! (2004); and its interchangeable title is perhaps premonitory.
You would be forgiven for confusing 2022’s Dig for The Dig (2021), The Dig (2017), Dig (2015), or even Dig! (2004); and its interchangeable title is perhaps premonitory.
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