Posts by Christian Long

Despite changing the course of film history with Easy Rider, Dennis Hopper’s career behind the camera in the years that followed was sparse. Most of that absence is due to the failure of his 1971 follow-up, The Last Movie, which effectively led him to be exiled from the director’s chair for nearly a decade. That […]

Grade: C+ The Royal Family is just an awful institution. Beyond the their regal facade and ‘stiff upper lip’ bullshit, they seem to exist as these powerless figureheads that only serve as tabloid fodder or an infrequent reminder of how fucking useless monarchies have always been. Enter Spencer, a biopic focusing on three days of […]

Grade B+ The story of someone pursuing their dreams and achieving stardom with sheer talent and determination is one of the most romanticized tales told. If that weren’t true, they wouldn’t have remade A Star Is Born four times, and the whole reality/competition TV genre as we know it wouldn’t exist. The thing is, the […]

The new documentary takes on the realites of superstardom.

While the adaptation is as yet incomplete, what we’ve got so far has potential.

Last week, Inglourious Basterds was released in 4K for the first time, offering up a fuller remastered take on Quentin Tarantino’s 2009 WWII grindhouse epic. Though the film has lived on, thanks mostly to anti-Nazi memes bolstered in big part by the election of 2016 – it didn’t quite become the cultural sticking point like […]

Grade: B The subject of the pandemic is still a tricky one to tackle, given that partisan dipshittery and weaponized misinformation means it’s still very much going strong. While this seemingly unending pandemic continues to rage in pockets of the U.S. and over the world, there have been some interesting meditations on it that succeeded […]

This ‘Soprano’s Story’ feels like something Paulie might leave in the pishadoo.

Lady of the Manor is the kind of lighthearted comedy romp harkening back to the slightly more carefree days of 80’s summer cinema. It stars Melanie Lynskey as Hannah, a part-time weed dealer/full-time stoner who ends up in one of those classic comedy sendups: losing everything important to you in the span of a few […]

Grade B+ Whenever you sit down for a movie starring Nicolas Cage, particularly one made during his steadily intensifying baroque period, there’s always a chance you’ll see a testicle explode. An outside chance, mind you, but still a much greater chance than one would expect from a movie where he doesn’t get top billing. Okay, […]

Rating: B- If Small Engine Repair had been made decades ago, it’s likely it would be revered as a cult classic today. Written, directed by, and starring John Pollono, based on his play of the same name, it’s a film told on the smallest of scales, with a story that plays out in the pauses […]

Writer/director James Gunn taps into the limitless potential of ‘The Suicide Squad’

Out of all the knock-around noir detective novels out there, L.A. Confidential is one that will consistently rank high on almost anyone’s list who’s a fan of the genre. The 1990 novel by author James Ellroy is the third in his L.A. Quartet series, and is densely-packed story filled with corrupt cops, prostitutes, sex, drugs, […]

Creator Tom Fontana and cast members of HBO’s prison drama reminisce about the show and discuss its massive, albeit often overlooked, cultural footprint

After news of a Season 2, the creators and cast of ‘Hacks’ discuss their ‘revolutionary’ approach to their unconventional ‘love story’

In May of last year, at what now could be considered the beginning of the pandemic, Mythic Quest released a stand-alone episode, aptly titled “Quarantine.” Written, filmed, and edited in just three weeks, and shot entirely on iPhones, it became the first truly great pop culture monument to what life was like in 2020. It also […]

The working relationship between Megan Ganz and Danny Pudi goes back to the second season of Community, when Ganz penned the episode “Cooperative Calligraphy,” which trapped Pudi’s socially awkward Abed and his six co-stars in their library study room for a classic sitcom bottle episode. Years later, Ganz and Pudi are together again for AppleTV+’s […]

Any fan of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia who tuned into Mythic Quest’s first season were treated to more than the familiar sense of humor of co-creator Rob McElhenney. Actor David Hornsby, who plays the long-suffering Cricket on Always Sunny, also stars in Mythic Quest as David Brittlesbee. As the executive producer of the eponymous […]

While Mythic Quest may be set in the behind-the-scenes world of a video game company, its characters each have varied interest in the medium. Co-created and starring It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s Rob McElhenney, who plays the game’s visionary creator, Ian (pronounced eye-in, to help clue you into his insufferable personality), the show manages to […]

For the newest adaptation of The Mosquito Coast, initially a 1981 novel that was adapted for the silver screen by director Peter Weir in 1986, star and EP Justin Theroux allows for a new interpretation on the perennially relevant character of Allie Fox. Of course, anywhere Allie Fox goes is certain to be an erratic, […]