Matt Singer is the editor and critic of the website ScreenCrush.com. For five years, he was the on-air host of IFC News on the Independent Film Channel, hosting coverage of film festivals and red carpets around the world. A member of the New York Film Critics Circle, he’s been a frequent contributor to the television shows CBS This Morning Saturday and Ebert Presents At the Movies, and his writing has also appeared in print and online at The Village Voice, The Dissolve, and Indiewire. His first book, Marvel’s Spider-Man: From Amazing to Spectacular, is on sale now.
Matt Singer
‘Joy’ Review: Jennifer Lawrence Is Totally Miscast in This Business Biopic
Jennifer Lawrence was 24 when she shot Joy. Her character, Joy Mangano, was 34 when she invented the Miracle Mop and became one of the first stars of the QVC network. This fact remains inescapable throughout Joy. Lawrence remains watchable in Joy because, as one of our best young actors, she can’t help but be watchable. But she’s totally miscast as a divorced mother of two who’s been repeatedly beaten down by life’s disappointments. This part was meant for the Jennifer Lawrence of a 2025, not the one of 2015.
‘The Revenant’ Review: This Revenge Western Is Beautiful And… Uh… Well, It’s Beautiful Anyway
How good does a movie have to look to offset its other deficiencies? The Revenant is as beautiful a movie as has ever been made. The photography by master cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki is inconceivably gorgeous; sweeping wide shots that juxtapose tiny, insignificant men against the overwhelming grandeur of nature, close-ups so intimate they seem like invasions of the actors’ privacy, and action sequences of shocking violence.
‘Now You See Me 2’ Trailer: Get Ready For a Reappearing Act
And now, for their next trick: a sequel!
‘Creed’ Review: An Old Franchise Flies High Again
“The way I imagine it, after the fight, he’s riding home in a cab, with the roar of the people chanting ‘Rocky!’ still in his ears. And he just drops over dead. In other words, he has achieved everything possible and he dies when he’s on top. I don’t think people want to see Rocky when he’s 80.”
Someone Is Remaking Christopher Nolan’s ‘Memento’
If you were interested in movies back in the year 2000 and you didn’t have some kind of brain-destroying amnesiac condition, you remember Memento. The second feature by a British filmmaker named Christopher Nolan, Memento became a breakthrough in American cinemas (the indie made an impressive $25 million in U.S. theaters) and Nolan’s calling card in Hollywood, where he went on to become one of the most important and interesting filmmakers of his generation.
Warner Bros. and Legendary Officially Announce Massive King Kong/Godzilla Trilogy
Prepare yourself... for the EXTREMELY LARGE MONSTERS CINEMATIC UNIVERSE.
‘Crimson Peak’ Review: Guillermo Del Toro’s Gloomy Gothic Romance
Alfred Hitchcock had a saying: “Logic is dull.” On the basis of Crimson Peak, it’s pretty clear Guillermo del Toro feels the same way.
Netflix Is Raising Their Prices…Again
Chill, Netflix.
The cost of a Netflix subscription is getting a 10% hike. In the short term, only new subscribers are affected; they’ll now pay $9.99 for the standard monthly streaming plan, up a dollar from the previous $8.99 price...
George Miller Wants to Make Two More ‘Mad Max’ Movies
The long and winding Fury Road, that leads to ... several more sequels.
‘Black Mass’ Review: Johnny Depp as a Wicked Boston Gangster
Jawny Depp can be a great actuh. But at a certain point in the recent past, Jawny seemed to stop looking faw great material and stahted looking faw anything that would affawd him the awppawtunity to put on a crazy wig and speak in a weeuhd accent. In the past few yeeuhs he’s played a vampiyuh with crazy hair and a weeuhd accent, a Native American with a bird on his head and a weeuhd accent, a Canadian detective with a fake nose and a weeuhd accent, a singing wolf with crazy hair and a weeuhd accent, a British art thief with a crazy mustache and a weeuhd accent, and now, in Black Mass, he’s James “Whitey” Bulgah, with thinning hair and a thick Bahston accent. Do you think Jawny even remembuhs what he really sounds like at this point?