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
‘Demolition’ Review: A Strong Jake Gyllenhaal Performance in a Weak Movie
Naomi Watts’ is the second-billed star in Jean-Marc Vallée’s Demolition. On the film’s official Fox Searchlight website, her name appears above the title next to Jake Gyllenhaal’s. But she barely appears in the film’s trailer. She’s onscreen for less than one second. She says just three words. (“You miss her?”) It’s almost like the trailer is trying to hide her.
Review: ‘Sicario’ Is One of the Most Intense Movies of the Year
‘Sicario’ is an exercise in prolonged tension like few others. Every moment from the first scene to the last is suspenseful. The opening, a deadly raid on a drug kingpin’s safe house establishes a terrifying precedent: In this film, violence can erupt at any time without any warning, and no one and nothing can be trusted. Having thoroughly unsettled the audience, director Denis Villeneuve keeps viewers on edge with shifty characters, sudden bursts of gunfire, and the careful use of a persistent, pounding score. Remember the scene in Boogie Nights where Alfred Molina is randomly tossing firecrackers at Mark Wahlberg and John C. Reilly? Sicario is like that scene for two straight hours with no “Sister Christian.” It is intense.
New HBO NOW Releases: September 2015
Aspiring filmmakers. Androids. Cheerleaders. Olympic figure skaters. Dr. Frank N. Furter. Moses.
‘Hitman: Agent 47’ Review: The Hitman’s Name Is Agent 47, So Technically the Title of This Movie is ‘Hitman: Hitman’
Agent 47 is a perfect assassin, designed in a lab to kill with ruthless efficiency and accuracy. Mad scientists tweaked his genetics to enhance his toughness and diminish his emotions, because emotions make people weak. In his line of work — murdering people, all day, everyday, for money — it is better not to feel.
First ‘Incredibles 2’ and ‘Cars 3’ Posters on Display at D23
Disney’s annual convention dedicated to itself, D23 (named, I assume, after the number of dollars you have left in your bank account after you go and buy lots of cool Disney swag), kicks off today, so expect plenty of news and announcements coming out of Anaheim all weekend...
‘The Hateful Eight’ Trailer: Quentin Tarantino’s Latest, Wanted Dead or Alive
I can’t blame anyone who’s got Star Wars: The Force Awakens at the top of their list of most anticipated movies of the fall and winter. But for me, it’s all about The Hateful Eight.
Winona Ryder Says ‘Beetlejuice 2’ Is Actually Happening
You remember Beetlejuice. That crazy, anarchic ghost guy played by Michael Keaton who materializes in his black-and-white striped suit whenever you say his name three times.
Ivan Reitman: ‘There Is Only One New ‘Ghostbusters’ Movie’
There has been much dispute lately regarding the matter of who, in the event of a ghost-related emergency, ya gonna call.
‘Vacation’ Review: This Sad Sequel Truly Is a Road Trip from Hell
Full disclosure: I missed the last 10 minutes of Vacation. Last night’s press screening started 20 minutes late, then began without any sound, which lead to a 10 minute delay to correct the technical difficulties. With an unbreakable engagement elsewhere, I had to sneak out right before the very last scene. So take this review with as many grains of salt as you’d like. If you think those final minutes might recontextualize everything that came before to transform a generally miserable comedy into a beacon of transcendent hilarity, so be it. Having sat through the previous 90 minutes, I’m of the opinion that nothing short of the long-lost missing footage from Orson Welles’ Magnificent Ambersons could have redeemed this dreadful film.
Michael Jackson Wanted to Play Jar Jar Binks in ‘The Phantom Menace’
In an interview with VICE, Ahmed Best, best known as the man who appeared in three less-than-enthusiastically received Star Wars prequels as the less-than-beloved Jar Jar Binks, says that while he was the one who ended up winning the role, there was a far more famous superstar who really wanted to play everyone’s ninth-favorite Gungan. And that man was Michael Jackson.