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Movie Review Logos

Try BrandCrowd for Free! The World's #1 Movie Review Logo Maker.

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Making Your Movie Review Logo Is Easy With BrandCrowd Logo Maker

Create a professional movie review logo in minutes with our free movie review logo maker. Brandcrowd logo maker is easy to use and allows you full customization to get the movie review logo you want!

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Pick one of the movie review logos on this page or update your search.

Customize Your movie review Logo

Change colours, fonts, add a tagline… Our movie review logo maker is 100% customizable and easy to use.

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How do i make a movie review logo with brandcrowd.

Creating your movie review logo easy with BrandCrowd. Just follow these steps and you'll have a movie review logo ready to share with the world in minutes.

1. Start searching:

To find movie review logos relevant to your business enter your business name - We'll automatically show you movie review logos related to your business. You can browse the logos and choose one you love.

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3. Create a movie review logo shortlist

To make life easier you can "shortlist" logos that you like. Simply click the heart symbol and we'll add the movie review logos to your shortlist.

4. Edit your movie review logo

Once you've found a movie review logo that you love, you can customize the logo colors, fonts and layout. You can even add more embellishments with shapes.

5. Preview your movie review logo

When you're done editing you can easily preview your logo on apparal, signage and more to see how it looks in real life.

6. Download your movie review logo

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What elements make a beautiful movie review logo?

It's easy to create a movie review logo with BrandCrowd's logo maker - but making sure you get these design elements right will ensure your logo is perfect. Your movie review logo should represent your brand, help people remember you and provide insight into your services. Choosing the right colors, layout, fonts and shapes are key to making sure your movie review logo rises above competitors.

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‘Lousy Carter’ Review: Blackboard Bungle

A college professor gets a grim diagnosis in this comedy from Bob Byington.

• Share full article

By Amy Nicholson

Death be not tragic in “Lousy Carter,” a repellently watchable curiosity from the Austin cult filmmaker Bob Byington. Carter (David Krumholtz) is a self-involved literature professor with little interest in his students, his family, and his past and present lovers. So when he’s given six months to live, no one cares. Turn the concept of a laugh-out-loud comedy inside-out and you’ll have a feel for Byington’s sense of humor: a sustained cruel hum, the room tone of a crypt.

There are no hugs here, no lessons to glean before dying, not even anything as impassioned as despair. Carter fills his final days dully scrolling his phone during cold conversations with his ex-wife (Olivia Thirlby), his mistress (Jocelyn DeBoer) and her husband (Martin Starr), his supposed best friend. Even Carter’s analyst (Stephen Root) is unmoved during one of the rare times Carter opens up about his pressurized childhood and squandered life. “At least you had a father,” the therapist snaps.

Between the hammering misanthropy, the herky-jerky editing and almost defiantly crummy sound mix, this exasperating film keeps you enjoyably off-balance. At one point, I could swear Byington had locked us inside a narcissist’s head as a challenge, like a cinematic escape room; later, the movie seems to yearn to be a graphic novel so the audience can soak in the malaise (and catch the visual gags that don’t quite land). Perhaps the point lies with the caustic grad student who Carter attempts to bed as his last great hurrah. Gail (Luxy Banner) has zero respect for his underwhelming pontifications on Vladimir Nabokov and F. Scott Fitzgerald. She’s bored with taking male ennui seriously — and the film feels the same way.

Lousy Carter Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 20 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on most major platforms .

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Under the Banner of Heaven

Where to watch.

Watch Under the Banner of Heaven with a subscription on Hulu.

Cast & Crew

Dustin Lance Black

Andrew Garfield

Detective Jeb Pyre

Sam Worthington

Ron Lafferty

Daisy Edgar-Jones

Brenda Wright Lafferty

Denise Gough

Dianna Lafferty

Wyatt Russell

Dan Lafferty

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Tv news & guides, this show is featured in the following articles., series info.

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Under the Banner of Heaven review – ambitious but uneven true crime series

Andrew Garfield and Daisy Edgar-Jones shine in a mixed adaptation of Jon Krakauer’s 2003 book on a double murder by Mormon fundamentalists

T he predominant feeling throughout Under the Banner of Heaven, an ambitious and uneven adaptation of Jon Krakauer’s 2003 nonfiction book, is dread. From the moment in the first scene when a phone call takes detective Jeb Pyre (Andrew Garfield) away from his two young daughters, there’s a sense that Something Bad is coming, that each step forward will sink deeper into darkness. There’s that first horrific step down in the second scene, as Pyre recoils at a vicious crime scene. Director David Mackenzie’s camera spares you the bodies but not the blood – smeared on the phone, handprinted on the door, puddled on the kitchen floor.

The seven-part limited series, created by Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black (Milk), follows the investigation into who slashed the throats of 24-year-old Brenda Lafferty (Normal People’s Daisy Edgar-Jones) and her 15-month-old daughter in July 1984. But it also offers a steady stream of evermore disturbing revelations: the perversion of religious fundamentalism, the silence of religious institutions who choose pride over truth and, less effectively, the history of violence within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, more commonly known as Mormonism .

The real-life murders of Brenda and Erica are no mystery, and thus the show is not a whodunnit like HBO’s similarly bleak Mare of Easttown. Krakauer’s book investigated how gruesome violence could be committed in the name of faith, and how the LDS church obscured its ties to the fundamentalist groups that splintered following the church’s official ban on polygamy in 1890. (Krakauer had no official role on the TV series.) Black, who was raised Mormon , casts a similarly harsh and probing light on the LDS church, both in the specifics to this case (an unwillingness to help Pyre’s investigation – the Laffertys, we’re told, were “Utah Kennedys”) and the conservative faith’s general subjugation of women.

The series attempts to translate Krakauer’s sweeping book through the overused prestige TV trope of multiple timelines. In the first – and by far most successful – of the three storylines, Pyre and his partner, detective Bill Taba (Yellowstone’s Gil Birmingham) peel back the rotten layers in the murder case through interrogations with the younger Lafferty brothers: Brenda’s distraught yet inscrutable widower Allen (Billy Howle), reticent Robin (Seth Numrich) and off-the-grid fundamentalist Sam (Rory Culkin). Taba, a Native American of Paiute heritage, offers a skeptical, hardened foil to Pyre’s pious good cop – and a reminder, both in presence and in dialogue, that he’s the only character with brown skin in the “99% white town” of American Fork, Utah.

The second, confusingly jumbled timeline follows Brenda’s uncomfortable fit into the Lafferty family – she’s an aspiring journalist from less conservative Idaho, they’re Utah Mormon stalwarts with an ugly history of abuse by terrifying patriarch Ammon (Christopher Heyerdahl). The brunt of his violent anger falls on eldest sons Ron (Sam Worthington, with the wobbliest accent in a cast of primarily non-American actors) and Dan (an unnerving Wyatt Russell), whose repeated humiliations seem to undergird a vague slide into anti-tax libertarianism, spousal abuse and eventually polygamy.

By far the least successful storyline depicts Mormonism’s early days under founder Joseph Smith – himself a polygamist, although the LDS church did not admit this until 2014 . Whatever support the Mormon historical record lent to Krakauer’s analysis in the book doesn’t translate here; the 19th century scenes – stark, hokey, mostly sans historical context – resemble budget History Channel re-enactments and do almost nothing to enhance the later stories. They’re jarring and unnecessary distractions to the much more nuanced, taut later timelines, not least because they require awkward narration from the present-day characters – particularly poor Allen, also tasked with explaining Brenda to us.

Which is a shame, because the modern scenes of characters torn between their faith and their morals could easily stand on their own. With his baby face and mostly smooth American accent, Garfield is more than convincing as a buttoned-up church guy fraying under the weight of cognitive dissonance – the gap between what he believes (that man is the authority of the household, that the church is the ultimate authority) and what he knows (that his wife is his equal, that Brenda and Erica deserve justice). Edgar-Jones, too, captures this – some form of unbreakable spirit – in her heartbreaking portrayal of Brenda, a faithful Mormon and nascent feminist. At its best, the series digs into the always fascinating and confusing tension between instinct and instruction – how people see right when they’re told wrong, how people feel pulled to the truth. How beliefs molt and mutate. When that question gets center stage, the show becomes something more than a competent if muddled entry into the dead girls oeuvre.

As a whole, the series is almost always discomforting, relentlessly ominous and occasionally nauseating. (Warning: if you, like me, find dog suffering/death to be unbearable, the second episode will be tough.) I don’t know if you can say it’s something inherently rotten about the LDS church, as the show sometimes seems to argue; what’s clear is that the church – an institution that secretly amassed a $100bn war chest – is more protective of its reputation than its people, like many other large institutions. Such institutions promise clarity, but people are messy. As a series, Under the Banner of Heaven struggles to maintain focus, but it never loses faith in that fact.

Under the Banner of Heaven is released on Thursdays on Hulu in the US with a UK date to be announced

• Andrew Garfield
• US television
• Denise Gough

Most viewed

How to Auto-generate and Schedule Movie Reviews for Publishing with No Code

Film buffs always have a lot to say about movies—their takes on casting, what titles are classified as must-watch, and how they feel the director of a film pulled the story all together. And when you’re that passionate about how stories are told on the big screen, it’s usually a hobby you won’t put down anytime soon.

Blogging is a fantastic way to stay immersed in a hobby and even potentially turn it into an income source. There are a lot of fun aspects of movie blogging, such as having record of the films you watched and being able to engage in conversations with other enthusiasts. But actually producing content and publishing regularly enough to increase the value of your site? For most, that’s the less enjoyable part.

Nocode tools make it possible for you to automate the production and publishing of movie reviews so that you spend more time watching films and less time keeping your blog updated. In fact, this tutorial will teach you to set up a zap that generates, stores, and publishes reviews on multiple platforms. All you have to do is fill out the details for each title on Airtable as you make your way through the list!

What You Will Create

Movie reviews can gain traction on multiple platforms, from websites to social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. We’ll use nocode tools to produce and distribute images optimized for different platforms using the same review data.

Here are the tools you’ll need:

Airtable : To store review data and trigger new image production

Data Miner (optional): To extract general film information from Wikipedia

Bannerbear : To design and generate movie review images in a variety of sizes

Zapier : To trigger actions in different programs based on pre-specified commands

By the end of the tutorial, you should be able to produce movie review images that look something like this:

Let’s start by designing some templates.

Prepare Your Bannerbear Templates

You’ll need some movie review templates prepared for image generation. Before you start customizing, though, decide on the channels to which you want to push your reviews and the sizes of images you’ll need. Here are a few suggestions:

• Blog Website (Thumbnail, In-text)
• Facebook (Post, Stories)
• Instagram (Post, Stories)
• TikTok ( Video generation might be more suitable here!)

In this example, we will produce a two-image collection: a 1:1 ratio image suitable for an Instagram Post or a website, and a 1:2.1 ratio image sized for Pinterest.

Once you’ve established what and how many templates you need, log into your Bannerbear app and start customizing!

Customize Your Templates

In a new project, create a blank template or start from one of ours, such as the Square Movie Review:

Customize your template, adding or removing any fields you want in your final review images.

Repeat this step for as many sizes and styles of images you need.

❗Note: Because a Collection pushes the same data payload to multiple templates, all of the designs in a template set must include the exact same fields named in the exact same way. It’s easiest to finalize one template, then duplicate it. You can then resize and move objects around as needed.

When you’re happy with your design, click “Save Template”.

Create a Template Set

A set of templates grouped together is a Template Set , and it’s used when you want to produce a variety of images using the same data.

From your project page, go to the Template Sets header and click “Create a Template Set.” Choose the template you want to add from the drop-down menu, then click “Add to Template Set.”

When you push data through, whether through Zapier or the API console, a new image will be produced from each template in your set.

Build an Airtable Base

Airtable will be the main driver of your review blog, and it will be the only thing you actively maintain once the automation is set up. One table stores everything you need: general information for each film and review data.

Step 1. Create a Table to Store General and Review Data

Create a blank Airtable base and customize it by adding fields that you will need for your review images. We recommend the following:

• Movie Title
• Approved (checkbox field type ✅)
• Publishing Date / Time
• Theatrical Release Poster (optional)
• Marketing Image
• Release Date
• Maturity Rating
• Running Time
• Starring Actors (optional)
• Director (optional)
• Description / Review
• Percentage Rating
• Number Rating
• Generated Image URL 1

Add additional Generated Image URL fields for as many images per set you will be producing.

Create an additional grid view that only shows reviews ready to become generated images. Add one filter condition: Approved is ✅ (checked).

You can, of course, add additional tables and views to organize information in a way that works best for you.

Step 2 (optional). Pre-Populate Records with Extracted Data

The general information about each movie doesn’t change, and you can extract most of the data from CC BY-SA 4.0 sources like Wikipedia. Besides saving you several minutes to look up the basic information for each movie, extracting lists of well-known films is a great way to build a watch list and go through themes with little additional effort.

To extract basic movie information from a list like List of 2022 box office number-one films in the United States , use a web scraping tool like Data Miner. The Chrome extension allows you to create a recipe that extracts a list of URLs.

You can then use the Data Miner Crawl feature to scrape movie details from each individual page.

Download the scraped data as a CSV file.

❗ Note : Keep in mind that because not every Wikipedia page contains the same number of line items, your recipe might not be 100% accurate. You might have to make some small adjustments, but these should be relatively simple.

To pre-populate your Airtable records, click the “Add or import” button at the top of your base and choose quick import from a CSV file.

After uploading the correct file, choose to upload in your main Movies table and map the imported data fields to the ones on Airtable.

Your table should now be pre-populated with movie titles and the general information you chose to scrape.

All that’s left is to fully populate one record so you can test your automation.

Step 3. Populate a Test Record

You’ll need a fully populated test record to test your zap. If you skipped the scraped data pre-population step, this just means taking a few extra minutes to fill in the necessary information for your movie review.

When you’re happy with your record, click the checkbox in the “Approved” field. It should now show up in the Approved View.

Connect Your Airtable, Bannerbear, and Other Accounts to Zapier

You will need to add your Airtable and Bannerbear accounts (as well as the accounts of any distribution methods, eg. WordPress, Pinterest) as connections in Zapier. Log into your Zapier account, click the “My Apps” button on the left sidebar, then “+ Add connection” for each new integration.

Here is what you’ll need from each app:

• Airtable : Zapier will request authentication with an Airtable API key, which you can find on the Account ↗ page.
• Bannerbear : Zapier will request authentication with a Project API key, which is generated for every new project. You can find it by clicking the “Settings / API Key” button on the associated project page in the Bannerbear app.
• WordPress (optional): Zapier will request the full URL of your site as well as your login credentials.
• Pinterest (optional): Zapier will request your login credentials and access to your account.

Once all accounts have been added, you should be able to smoothly set up your zaps.

Set up a Zap that Generates, Stores, and Distributes Movie Reviews

Zapier will kickstart the image generation, storage, and distribution process when you check the “Approved” box on a record in Airtable. Since the entire process is the result of one trigger, you can fit it into a single zap.

Click “+ Create Zap” from your dashboard and set up the following steps:

Trigger: New Record in Airtable

Choose Airtable as the app and “New Record” as the trigger. After selecting the correct account, set up your trigger with the right base, table, and view.

Test your trigger to ensure Zapier is able to find a trigger.

Action: Text in Formatter by Zapier

The movie release dates scraped from Wikipedia are in Month DD, YYYY format. Because we only want the year of release in our movie review image, we will use Zapier Formatter to extract only the latter part of the string.

Choose Formatter by Zapier as the app and “Text” as the event. Select the “Extract Pattern” transform type, enter your input values, and insert the following Python regex expression in the Pattern field: \b\d{4}\b

Click “Continue” and test your action. Your output should be in the YYYY format.

Action: Create Collection in Bannerbear

All of our data is now in the correct format for image production, so let’s send it to Bannerbear.

Choose Bannerbear as the app and “Create Collection” as the event. Connect the account containing the corresponding project, then set up the action by mapping data fields to template fields.

You’ll be storing generated image URLs in the same table, so be sure to save metadata in the form of the Airtable ID with your collection.

Test the action. You should see images rendered and send to Logs on your Bannerbear app.

Bear Tip 🐻: To apply the same formatting to more than one data value in the same space on your template, map multiple data fields to a single template field. You can also insert any text dividers you want to use. See the “movie_details” field in the above image for an example.

Since we’re generating a collection of images, the URLs are combined into one field and separated by commas. We will use the Formatter tool again to split them up for Airtable storage.

Choose Formatter by Zapier as the app and “Text” as the event. Select the “Split Text” transform type, enter your input values, and use a comma (,) as the separator. Make sure the segment index is set to “All (as Separate Fields)”.

You should now have separate URLs for each image of your collection.

Action: Update Record in Airtable

Choose Airtable as the app and “Update Record” as the event. Select the right account, base, and table. Then, enter the metadata from the previous image generation step and map the split URLs to the appropriate fields.

Test the action and ensure your URLs show up on Airtable.

Action: Create Post in WordPress (optional)

Choose WordPress as the app and “Create Post” as the event. Select the site, then set up your post.

You can schedule posts that include review images along with a longer blog entry. Alternatively, keep it simple with review images only.

Action: Create Pin in Pinterest (optional)

Choose Pinterest as the app and “Create Pin” as the event. Select the right account, then set up your action.

Use the publishing date and time from Airtable to schedule Pins. All new media will be sent to a particular board and circulated to a relevant audience.

Bear Tip 🐻: Choose publishing methods that you can schedule so that your blog is consistently active and you can produce reviews in bulk.

After adding all the distribution methods you plan to use, click “Publish” and take your zap live.

You should have a collection of review images scheduled for posting on relevant avenues:

Automate Your Movie Review Production

Running a high-quality movie review site can take a lot of work, but you can take a load off your shoulders with nocode tools. Save even more time by preparing several reviews at once and scheduling them for future publishing. That way, your blog stays updated even if you only work on it for a couple of hours every month or two.

With only one Airtable base to maintain as you watch and review films, your hobby or side hustle just got a lot easier.

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How to write a movie review [Updated 2023]

Writing a movie review is a great way to practice critical analysis skills. In this post, we explore what a movie review is, how to start a film review, and steps for writing and revising it.

What is a movie review?

A movie review is a concise evaluation of a film’s content and formal elements (cinematography, sound, lighting, etc.). Also known as a film review, a movie review considers not just what a film means, but how it means. Essentially, when you write a film review, you are conducting a critical analysis or close reading of a movie.

How to write a movie review

To write a successful review about a movie, you need to evaluate a film’s content, as well as its form. In this section, we break down these two components.

A film’s content includes its plot (what it’s about), characters, and setting. You’ll need to determine the main plot points of the film and how the film’s story works overall.

Are there parts that don’t make sense? Are certain characters more important than others? What is the relationship between the movie’s plot and its setting? A discussion of a film’s content provides good context for an analysis of its form.

Form refers to all of the aesthetic and/or formal elements that make a story into a movie. You can break down form into several categories:

• Cinematography : This element comprises all aspects of the movie that derive from the way a camera moves and works. You’ll need to pay attention to elements like camera angles, distances between the camera and the subject, and types of shots (i.e. close-up, aerial, etc.).
• Lighting : Films use lighting in various ways to communicate certain effects. For instance, noir films tend to utilize chiaroscuro lighting (deep contrasts between light and dark) to express a sense of secrecy or foreboding.
• Sound : The way a film uses sound can vary considerably. Most movies have a soundtrack, sometimes with music composed specifically for the film. Some films play around with ambient sounds or use silence at key points to signify important moments. What is the relation of sound to the image in specific scenes or sequences? Do sounds link images? Does it ever become more important than the image?
• Editing : The movies we watch online or in theaters have been heavily edited in order to achieve a particular flow. When you are preparing to write a movie review, pay close attention to elements like the length of shots, transitions between scenes, or any other items that were finalized after filming.
• Costumes, Props, and Sets : Are the costumes and props believable in relation to the film’s content and setting? Are costumes particularly elaborate or understated?

The important thing to remember when you are analyzing the formal elements of a movie is that every image, sound, movement, and object has meaning and has been planned. Your review needs to take into consideration how these elements work together with the film’s storyline to create a whole experience.

Once you’ve considered both the content and form of the movie that you’re reviewing, you can begin to evaluate the film as a whole. Is it a successful movie? Would you recommend it? Why or why not?

Step-by-step review writing tips

1. watch the movie.

The first time that you watch the movie, look for overarching themes or patterns, and establish what the film is primarily about. Take note of the main characters, as well as the setting.

2. Watch the movie again and take notes

Next, watch the movie again and take notes as you are doing so, keeping in mind the formal aspects discussed above. Write down anything that seems significant.

3. Evaluate the film’s form and content

Using the categories described above, and any handouts or guides provided by your instructor, evaluate the film’s formal elements along with its content. Are there elements of the movie that strike you as unfamiliar or perplexing? Are there elements that are repeated to emphasize a point or perception?

4. Write your review

A good movie review will contain:

• an introductory paragraph that tells the reader what movie you’re reviewing
• a paragraph that summarizes the movie
• several body paragraphs that explore significant formal elements and how they relate to the content
• a concluding paragraph that discusses your overall reaction to the film and whether or not you would recommend it to others

5. Create citations

You’ll need cite the film and any secondary sources that you consulted while writing. Use BibGuru’s citation generator to instantly create accurate citations for movies, as well as articles, books, and websites.

You may also want to consult a guide on how to cite a film in MLA or another major citation style .

6. Revise and proofread

Once you’ve written your review, you should set aside some time to revise and proofread it before you turn it in.

Movie review checklist

You can use this checklist to ensure that you’ve considered all of the formal elements, as well as the content, of the film that you’re reviewing:

🔲 Cinematography (camera moves and types of shots)

🔲 Lighting (natural vs. artificial light, contrasts between light and dark)

🔲 Sound (soundtrack, sound vs. silence, loud vs. soft sounds)

🔲 Editing (length of shots, transitions between scenes)

🔲 Costumes, props, and sets (believable vs. staged)

🔲 Content (plot, characters, setting)

Frequently Asked Questions about how to write a review about a movie

A movie review should contain a brief summary of the film, several paragraphs of analysis that focus on form and content, and a concluding paragraph that sums up your reaction.

Before you write anything, you need to watch the film at least once. Take notes as you’re watching and pay attention to formal elements and patterns. Then, write your review. The final step is to revise your work before you turn it in.

The tone for a movie review should be critical, yet objective. The goal of most reviews is to persuade a reader to either see a film or not.

The best film reviews balance plot summary with critical analysis of significant formal elements. A reader should be able to decide if she wants to see the film after reading the review.

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The Hulk is rare among Marvel superheroes in that his powers are a curse, not an advantage. When rage overcomes Dr. Bruce Banner and he turns into a green monster many times his original size, it is not to fight evil or defend the American way, but simply to lash out at his tormentors. Like the Frankenstein stories that are its predecessors, "Hulk" is a warning about the folly of those who would toy with the secrets of life. It is about the anguish of having powers you did not seek and do not desire. "What scares me the most," Banner tells his only friend, Betty Ross, "is that when it happens, when it comes over me, when I totally lose control, I like it." Ang Lee 's "Hulk" (the movie's title drops "the") is the most talkative and thoughtful recent comic book adaptation. It is not so much about a green monster as about two wounded adult children of egomaniacs. Banner ( Eric Bana ) was fathered by a scientist ( Nick Nolte ) who has experimented on his own DNA code, and passed along genes that are transformed by a lab accident into his son's hulkhood. Betty Ross ( Jennifer Connelly ) is his research partner; they were almost lovers, but it didn't work out, and she speaks wryly of "my inexplicable fascination with emotionally distant men." Her cold father is General Ross ( Sam Elliott ), filled with military bluster and determined to destroy the Hulk.

These two dueling oedipal conflicts are at the heart of "Hulk," and it's touching how in many scenes we are essentially looking at damaged children. When the Hulk's amazing powers become known, the military of course tries to kill him (that's the routine solution in most movies about aliens and monsters), but there's another villain who has a more devious scheme. That's Talbot ( Josh Lucas ), a venal entrepreneur who wants to use Banner's secret to manufacture a race of self-repairing soldiers. Lots of money there.

The movie brings up issues about genetic experimentation, the misuse of scientific research and our instinctive dislike of misfits, and actually talks about them. Remember that Ang Lee is the director of films such as " The Ice Storm " and "Sense and Sensibility," as well as " Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon "; he is trying here to actually deal with the issues in the story of the Hulk, instead of simply cutting to brainless special effects.

Just as well, too, because the Hulk himself is the least successful element in the film. He's convincing in closeup but sort of jerky in long shot--oddly, just like his spiritual cousin, King Kong. There are times when his movements subtly resemble the stop-frame animation used to create Kong, and I wonder if that's deliberate; there was a kind of eerie oddness about Kong's movement that was creepier than the slick smoothness of modern computer-generated creatures.

"King Kong" is of course one of Lee's inspirations, in a movie with an unusual number of references to film classics. " Bride of Frankenstein " is another, as in a scene where Hulk sees his reflection in a pond. No prizes for identifying "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" as the source of the original comics. Other references include " Citizen Kane " (the Hulk tears apart a laboratory) and " The Right Stuff " (a jet airplane flies so high the stars are visible). There also is a shade of Gen. Jack D. Ripper in Gen. Ross, who is played by Elliott in a masterful demonstration of controlled and focused almost-overacting.

The film has its share of large-scale action sequences, as rockets are fired at the Hulk and he responds by bringing down helicopters. And there are the obligatory famous landmarks, real and unreal, we expect in a superhero movie; the Golden Gate Bridge, Monument Valley, and of course an elaborate secret laboratory where Hulk can be trapped in an immersion chamber while his DNA is extracted.

But these scenes are secondary in interest to the movie's central dramas, which involve the two sets of fathers and children. Banner has a repressed memory of a traumatic childhood event, and it is finally jarred loose after he meets his father again after many years. Nolte, looking like a man in desperate need of a barber and flea powder, plays Banner's dad as a man who works in the same laboratory, as a janitor. He uses DNA testing to be sure this is indeed his son, and in one clandestine conversation tells him, "You're going to have to watch that temper of yours." Connelly's character also has big issues with her father--she trusts him when she shouldn't--and it's amusing how much the dilemma of this character resembles the situation of the woman she played in " A Beautiful Mind ." Both times she's in love with a brilliant scientist who's a sweetheart until he goes haywire, and who thinks he's being pursued by the government.

The movie has an elegant visual strategy; after countless directors have failed, Ang Lee figures out how split-screen techniques can be made to work. Usually they're an annoying gimmick, but here he uses moving frame-lines and pictures within pictures to suggest the dynamic storytelling techniques of comic books. Some shots are astonishing, as foreground and background interact and reveal one another. There is another technique, more subtle, that reminds me of comics: He often cuts between different angles in the same closeup--not cutting away, but cutting from one view of a face to another, as graphic artists do when they need another frame to deal with extended dialogue.

Whether "Hulk" will appeal to its primary audience--teenage science fiction fans--is hard to say. No doubt it will set the usual box office records over the weekend, but will it reach audiences who will respond to its dramatic ambition? Ang Lee has boldly taken the broad outlines of a comic book story and transformed them to his own purposes; this is a comic book movie for people who wouldn't be caught dead at a comic book movie.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

Hulk (2003)

Rated PG-13 For Sci-Fi Action Violence, Some Disturbing Images and Brief Partial Nudity

138 minutes

Sam Elliott as Ross

Josh Lucas as Talbot

Paul Kersey as Young David Banner

Eric Bana as Bruce Banner

Jennifer Connelly as Betty Ross

Nick Nolte as Father

Based On The Story by

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A Real Pain

Mismatched cousins David and Benji reunite for a tour through Poland to honor their beloved grandmother. The adventure takes a turn when the odd-couple's old tensions resurface against the b... Read all Mismatched cousins David and Benji reunite for a tour through Poland to honor their beloved grandmother. The adventure takes a turn when the odd-couple's old tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family history. Mismatched cousins David and Benji reunite for a tour through Poland to honor their beloved grandmother. The adventure takes a turn when the odd-couple's old tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family history.

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Benji Kaplan : This, people, is what fucking film making is about.

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Music Review: Taylor Swift’s ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ is great sad pop, meditative theater

Taylor Swift fans took over the Grove in Los Angeles on Tuesday to celebrate Swift’s upcoming album, “The Tortured Poets Department.” An installation organized by Spotify hid clues about lyrics contained on the record. (April 17)

This cover image released by Republic Records show “The Tortured Poets Department” by Taylor Swift. (Republic Records via AP)

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Who knew what Taylor Swift’s latest era would bring? Or even what it would sound like? Would it build off the moodiness of “Midnights” or the folk of “evermore” ? The country or the ‘80s pop of her latest re-records? Or its two predecessors in black-and-white covers: the revenge-pop of “Reputation” and the literary Americana of “folklore” ?

“The Tortured Poets Department,” here Friday, is an amalgamation of all of the above, reflecting the artist who — at the peak of her powers — has spent the last few years re-recording her life’s work and touring its material, filtered through synth-pop anthems, breakup ballads, provocative and matured considerations.

In moments, her 11th album feels like a bloodletting: A cathartic purge after a major heartbreak delivered through an ascendant vocal run, an elegiac verse, or mobile, synthesized productions that underscore the powers of Swift’s storytelling.

And there are surprises. The lead single and opener “Fortnight” is “1989” grown up — and features Post Malone . It might seem like a funny pairing, but it’s a long time coming: Since at least 2018, Swift’s fans have known of her love for Malone’s “Better Now.”

Taylor Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department” is here.

• In her review, AP Music Writer Maria Sherman calls it “an amalgamation of an artist who has spent the last few years re-recording her life’s work and touring its material , filtered through synth-pop anthems, breakup ballads, provocative and matured subject matter.”
• Swift announced a surprise two hours after the album release: 15 additional tracks.
• The project is Swift’s first original album since her record-breaking Eras Tour kicked off last year.

“But Daddy I Love Him” is the return of country Taylor, in some ways — fairytale songwriting, a full band chorus, a plucky acoustic guitar riff, and a cheeky lyrical reversal: “But Daddy I love him / I’m having his baby / No, I’m not / But you should see your faces.” (Babies appear on “Florida!!!” and the bonus track “The Manuscript” as well.)

The fictitious “Fresh Out The Slammer” begins with a really pretty psych guitar tone that disappears beneath wind-blown production; the new wave-adjacent “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys” brings back “Barbie” : “I felt more when we played pretend than with all the Kens / ‘Cause he took me out of my box.”

Even before Florence Welch kicks off her verse in “Florida!!!,” the chorus’ explosive repetition of the song title hits hard with nostalgic 2010s indie rock, perhaps an alt-universe Swiftian take on Sufjan Stevens’ “Illinois.”

As another title states, “So Long, London,” indeed.

It would be a disservice to read Swift’s songs as purely diaristic, but that track — the fifth on this album, which her fans typically peg as the most devastating slot on each album — evokes striking parallels to her relationship with a certain English actor she split with in 2023. Place it next to a sleepy love ode like “The Alchemy,” with its references to “touchdown” and cutting someone “from the team” and well ... art imitates life .

Revenge is still a pervasive theme. But where the reprisal anthems on “Midnights” were vindictive, on “The Tortured Poets Department,” there are new complexities: “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” combines the musical ambitiousness of “evermore” and “folklore” — and adds a resounding bass on the bridge — with sensibilities ripped from the weapons-drawn, obstinate “Reputation.” But here, Swift mostly trades victimhood for self-assurance, warts and all.

“Who’s afraid of little old me?” she sings. “You should be,” she responds.

And yet, “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” may be her most biting song to date: “You didn’t measure up in any measure of a man,” she sings atop propulsive piano. “I’ll forget you, but I won’t ever forgive,” she describes her target, likely the same “tattooed golden retriever,” a jejune description, mentioned in the title track.

Missteps are few, found in other mawkish lyrics and songs like “Down Bad” and “Guilty as Sin?” that falter when placed next to the album’s more meditative pop moments.

Elsewhere, Swift holds up a mirror to her melodrama and melancholy — she’s crying at the gym, don’t tell her about “sad,” is she allowed to cry? She died inside, she thinks you might want her dead; she thinks she might just die. She listens to the voices that tell her “Lights, camera, bitch, smile / Even when you want to die,” as she sings on “I Can Do It with a Broken Heart,” a song about her own performances — onstage and as a public figure.

“I’m miserable and nobody even knows!” she laughs at the end of the song before sighing, “Try and come for my job.”

“Clara Bow” enters the pantheon of great final tracks on a Swift album. The title refers to the 1920s silent film star who burned fast and bright — an early “It girl” and Hollywood sex symbol subject to vitriolic gossip, a victim of easy, everyday misogyny amplified by celebrity. Once Bow’s harsh Brooklyn accent was heard in the talkies, it was rumored, her career was over.

A glimpse of Clara Bow’s life in photos

Actress Clara Bow shown on Sept. 3, 1932. (AP Photo, File)

This 1930 photo shows Clara Bow, the original “It” girl. (AP Photo, File)

This early 1930s file photo shows actress Clara Bow in New York. (AP Photo/File)

In life, Bow later attempted suicide and was sent to an asylum — the same institution that appears on “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” “Clara Bow” works as an allegory and a cautionary tale for Swift, the same way Stevie Nicks’ “Mabel Normand” — another tragic silent film star — functioned for the Fleetwood Mac star.

Nicks appears in “Clara Bow,” too: “You look like Stevie Nicks in ’75 / The hair and lips / Crowd goes wild.”

Later, Swift turns the camera inward, and the song ends with her singing, “You look like Taylor Swift in this light / We’re loving it / You’ve got edge / She never did.” The album ends there, on what could be read as self-deprecation but stings more like frustrating self-awareness.

Swift sings about a tortured poet, but she is one, too. And isn’t it great that she’s allowed herself the creative license?

More From Forbes

Oil and gas mergers hit record q1 levels in 2024.

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Drone view captures a drilling location in the West Texas Permian Basin at sunset.

Big energy analytics and advisory firm Enverus reports this week that oil and gas upstream mergers and acquisitions reached a new first quarter high over the initial three months of 2024. In a release sent out Tuesday, report author Andrew Dittmar, Principal Analyst at Enverus Intelligence Research (EIR), says M&A activity for Q1 2024 totaled to more than $51 billion in deal value.

In an interview, Dittmar says the action started right after the holidays. “We woke up on January 4 to the news that Apache Corp. was doing a $4.5 billion deal to acquire Callon Energy,” he says. “We knew Callon had been on the block, so that wasn’t surprising, although it was a little surprising Apache was the acquiring company, just since they haven’t been all that active in the space.”

The record first quarter comes on the heels of the 21st century-high deal total of $192 billion for 2023. Although the Q1 total deal value of $51 billion maintains the pace set last year, Dittmar says he doesn’t expect it to continue for much longer. “The remaining inventory for potential deals remains in the Permian Basin,” he points out, adding, “and the Permian is increasingly controlled by ExxonMobil ExxonMobil , ConocoPhillips ConocoPhillips , Diamondback Energy, Chevron Chevron , and Occidental.”

All of those companies have executed major Permian-heavy deals in recent years, and Dittmar says they are now content to own as big a position in the most active basin in the country as they can. Big acquiring companies have in the past normally followed major transactions with a significant sell-off of non-core assets to high-grade their asset portfolios. But Dittmar says this hasn’t really happened related to Permian assets, denying smaller companies opportunities to grow their own inventories by snapping up those positions.

“Opportunities are still there for private equity, but they may need to get more creative,” said Dittmar. “That could include exploring more secondary targets like deep intervals in the Permian or pushing into areas like the Central Basin Platform. Ultimately, that is good for the industry, as private equity with a higher tolerance for risk compared to public companies has played a key role in finding additional resource. That is something we will need as the core shale plays continue to mature.”

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By far the biggest deal during Q1 2024 came in February, when Diamondback Energy Diamondback Energy acquired privately-owned Endeavor Energy Resources for $26 billion. Dittmar says this was the largest deal involving a family-owned producer EIR has tracked.

“Endeavor was a unique opportunity to acquire a legacy family-owned E&P with leases in the core of the Midland Basin acquired decades before Diamondback, or many of the other familiar shale names, were even in business,” said Dittmar. “There are a handful of other private family companies like Mewbourne Oil and Fasken Oil & Ranch that would similarly be highly sought after if they entertained offers to sell. However, there are no indications these closely held companies are looking to exit any time soon.”

That means that public companies looking to increase their inventory in the Permian will most likely be looking to fellow public companies to get a deal done. But the remaining roster of large public companies involved in the basin - like EOG, Devon Energy Devon Energy and Permian Resources - has also shrunk in recent years.

Potential large deals do still exist in other shale basins, as exemplified during Q1 by Chesapeake Energy’s Chesapeake Energy $11.5 billion acquisition of Southwestern Energy Southwestern Energy , whose major asset positions were in the gassy Haynesville and Marcellus basins. EIR notes that while that deal didn’t necessarily increase Chesapeake’s inventory life, it does provide increased potential exposure to the more lucrative international LNG export market through its enlarged position in the Haynesville.

One factor to keep an eye on here is that both the Cheseapeake/Southwestern deal and last fall’s deal by ExxonMobil to acquire Permian pure play Pioneer Natural Resources Pioneer Natural Resources have attracted scrutiny by the Federal Trade Commission. “The heightened review is a function both of an FTC that is increasingly active in anti-trust enforcement and a growing concentration of ownership of the key U.S. unconventional plays,” said Dittmar. “Ultimately, the most likely outcome is all these deals get approved but federal regulatory oversight may pose a headwind to additional consolidation within a single play.”

The Bottom Line

What we see here is a normal expected progression of dealmaking as the US shale industry moves on from the initial drilling boom phase in the maturity phase of development in America’s major shale basins. As the drilling boom began to fade during the 2017-2020 time frame, executives at the bigger companies like ExxonMobil and Chevron liked to talk about their goals of evolving their operations in areas like the Permian into more of a pure manufacturing process involving big acreage positions that enable them to deploy fewer drilling rigs, maximize production with longer laterals and enhanced technologies, and minimize costs through economies of scale.

While more deals no doubt still lurk out there to be made in the coming months, there is no real doubt that those larger companies have by and large now achieved that goal. For overall domestic production, this means that the explosive growth seen over the past decade will most likely slow.

With global demand for crude and natural gas still on an upward path, the spotlight will once again turn to OPEC+ and other global resource areas to keep markets balanced. The days of US shale serving as the global swing producer are growing short.

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