Adam Selvidge's Website Blog
Shortbus: Directed by John Cameron Mitchell. With Paul Dawson, Lindsay Beamish, Adam Hardman, Sook-Yin Lee. A group of New Yorkers caught up in their romantic-sexual milieu converge at an underground salon infamous for its blend of art, music, politics, and carnality. There’s a familiar saying that “you’ll know porn when you see it”, and while I feel this movie falls well within what normal viewers would consider pornography, the film itself doesn’t feel pornographic to me. Sure there’s P-in-V sex depicted, there’s P-in-M (of both flavors!), there’s plenty’s of topless people, and even an ongoing never stopping orgy happening in...
Bewitched: Directed by Nora Ephron. With Nicole Kidman, Will Ferrell, Shirley MacLaine, Michael Caine. Thinking he can overshadow an unknown actress in the part, an egocentric actor unknowingly gets a witch cast in an upcoming television remake of the classic sitcom Bewitched (1964). A movie about a universe in which “Bewitched” is being remade, and actual witch gets roped into starring as the lead role in the remake of the classic television show. It’s meta within meta! I was sent a MoviesAnywhere code of this for free from the studio with a note apologizing about something that went wrong that...
Aziz Ansari: Nightclub Comedian: Directed by Aziz Ansari. With Aziz Ansari, Phil Hanley. Comedian Aziz Ansari’s fourth comedy special. Turns out that Aziz is still funny, even in a last minute performance at the Comedy Cellar. Buy On Amazon!
The Witcher: Created by Lauren Schmidt. With Henry Cavill, Freya Allan, Anya Chalotra, Mimi Ndiweni. Geralt of Rivia, a solitary monster hunter, struggles to find his place in a world where people often prove more wicked than beasts. Season two is worlds better than season one, primarily because they did away with the absolutely pointless timeframe jumping around that completely confused me so effectively during season one. Add to that, Freya Allan had a larger focus as Ciri and absolutely killed it in Season Two. Buy On Amazon!
Eternals: Directed by Chloé Zhao. With Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek. The saga of the Eternals, a race of immortal beings who lived on Earth and shaped its history and civilizations. I’m standing by my previous review of the film, it’s a mediocre MCU film, but an ok movie by itself. It would have served itself better by trimming about 45 minutes from the total run time, but alas, we got what we got. Buy On Amazon!
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: Directed by Nicholas Meyer. With William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan. With the assistance of the Enterprise crew, Admiral Kirk must stop an old nemesis, Khan Noonien Singh, from using the life-generating Genesis Device as the ultimate weapon. Previously owned this digitally, but now own it on disk! It was part of a set of the first 4 movies that I got for christmas, and it’s still a movie that I feel comfortable going back to time and time again. The soundtrack, the plot, the acting, it hits everything I need...
Hi, Nellie: Directed by Mervyn LeRoy. With Paul Muni, Glenda Farrell, Ned Sparks, Robert Barrat. The managing editor for a newspaper, in hot water with his boss, is demoted to writing the “Nellie Nelson” heart throb column, where he gets the unexpected opportunity to crack a major story. Another Glenda Farrell movie, this one is volume 8 of the Forbidden Hollywood series, one of four or five movies included in the collection. They’re all supposed to be movies that were released before the Hays code and were “forbidden” to be shown, but in reality most of the films in this...
Lucy in the Sky: Directed by Noah Hawley. With Natalie Portman, Jon Hamm, Zazie Beetz, Dan Stevens. Astronaut Lucy Cola returns to Earth after a transcendent experience during a mission to space, and begins to lose touch with reality in a world that now seems too small. Loosely based on the story of Lisa Nowak, astronaut who had an unfortunate break from reality after she returned from space and ended up being arrested at an Orlando airport. woman in space needs just a couple more minutes, then returns to earth, picks up her neice from school, has dinner with her...
Predestination: Directed by Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig. With Ethan Hawke, Sarah Snook, Christopher Kirby, Christopher Sommers. For his final assignment, a top temporal agent must pursue the one criminal that has eluded him throughout time. The chase turns into a unique, surprising and mind-bending exploration of love, fate, identity and time travel taboos. Time cop has his face melted off, so he’s given a new face and a new voice, then put back on the time cop job, where he’s now a bartender who’s checking his scifi watch when a mysterious stranger walks in. The mysterious stranger turns out to...
Station Eleven: Created by Patrick Somerville. With Mackenzie Davis, Himesh Patel, Matilda Lawler, David Wilmot. A post apocalyptic saga spanning multiple timelines, telling the stories of survivors of a devastating flu as they attempt to rebuild and reimagine the world anew while holding on to the best of what’s been lost. I went in knowing nearly nothing about the story or how it would end, so I assumed it was going to be like most other post-apocalyptic stories, filled with horror, violence and a condemnation of humanity as it is today. While there was a bit of condemnation, that isn’t...
