ALL Guides
ISA Reviews - Netflix's Maniac, with the ISA's Max Timm
“Maniac” makes for a complex and challenging miniseries on Netflix.
Netflix is truly redefining entertainment platforms as well as pushing the envelope artistically with its content. Their big-budget miniseries “Maniac” starring Emma Stone and Jonah Hill is one that demands avid attention from its audience each minute. The ....
ISA Reviews - Netflix's, The Land of Steady Habits
The main character in “The Land of Steady Habits” make a habit of being unlikable.
In most of Nicole Holofcener’s films, the protagonists are flawed but likable females. For her latest, “The Land of Steady Habits”, her central character is a man and he’s very unlikable. Anders Harris (Ben Mendelsohn) is a former....
ISA Reviews - Season 2 of Netflix's, Glow
The sophomore season of “GLOW” on Netflix betters its freshman year.
Netflix’s dramedy GLOW, about women’s wrestling in the 80’s, had an auspicious first season in 2017. It helped rack up Netflix subscriptions, became a critical darling, and just received 10 Emmy awards. The show’s second se....
ISA Reviews - Sicario: Day of the Soldado
Plot struggles mar the tense action in “Sicario: Day of the Soldado”
“Sicario: Day of the Soldado” is a sequel shot, acted and directed with the same care as its 2015 predecessor “Sicario.” Still, none of that expertise can gloss over a script tha....
ISA Reviews - Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” is an eye-popping and meta animated adventure
Move over “Incredibles 2” and make way for another superb 2018 animated superhero movie - “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse.” This is the 7th Spidey movie since 2002 and it is both reverential to the franchise and able to lampoon it as ....
ISA Reviews - Spike Lee's, BlacKkKlansman
“BlacKkKlansman” is filmmaker Spike Lee at his most provocative and timely.
Period pieces always comment on our modern world, and “BlacKkKlansman” says as much about racism in the 20th century as it does about the issue today. The story of Ron Stallworth (John David Washington), the black policeman working undercover in 197....
ISA Reviews - Star Wars: The Last Jedi
“The Last Jedi” tells the familiar in surprising ways.By now, movie fans can be assured that each new “Star Wars” saga will have a lot of the same: light saber battles, snarling villains, and a ragtag band of resistance fighters. And writer/director Ri....
ISA Reviews - Tag
“Tag” earns its laughs through character and story
Often, summer comedies are over-the-top farces that strive to be little else than popcorn entertainment. There’s nothing wrong with that, but when one like “Tag” comes along that attempts more, it stands out. The story of five friends who have....
ISA Reviews - The 40th Anniversary of Animal House
Controversy and classic status mark the 40th of “National Lampoon’s Animal House”.
In 1978, “National Lampoon’s Animal House” established itself as a landmark comedy, not to mention a lightning rod for controversy. 40 years later, it’s still both. Host Jeff York and guest Gary Goldstein discuss all the way....
ISA Reviews - The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” showcases the Coen Brothers’ wit and morality.
Movie anthologies can be hit and miss, but “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” from Joel and Ethan Coen shoots bulls-eyes throughout. The six, western-themed stories in their new film run the, ahem, range from farce to pathos, but the Coen’....
ISA Reviews - The Girl In The Spider's Web
“The Girl in the Spider’s Web” needs to realize its lead character isn’t James Bond.
Lisbeth Salander, AKA “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” is many things: computer hacker, Goth girl, and righteous advocate of abused women. But one thing she isn’t is James Bond. So why does her latest film “The Gir....
ISA Reviews - The HBO Limited Series, Sharp Objects
HBO’s “Sharp Objects” brought its drama to life with painstaking care.
The HBO limited series “Sharp Objects” played like a novel come to life on the small screen. Working from Gillian Flynn’s moody 2006 bestseller, Director Jean-Marc Vallee and creator Marti Noxon took their time in adapting the prose, laying o....
ISA Reviews - Venom
“Venom” misses the opportunity to dig deeper into its themes of duality.
With the worldwide popularity of superhero movies, it’s inevitable that their nemeses would soon start fronting their own origin stories too. Spider-Man bad guy Venom is one of the first out of the gate, and it’s an uneasy mix of body transformation ho....
ISA Reviews / 2018 Page 2 Screen Oscar Special
2018 Oscar nominations reflect diversity and strong, original writing. The 90th Academy Award nominations have been announced and the voters have delivered an impressive and diverse spectrum of honorees. Greta Gerwig (“Lady Bird”) and Jordan Peele (“Get Out”) netted Best Director nods. Agnes Varda, James Ivory, and Chri....
ISA Reviews Star Wars: The Force Awakens w / Derek Asaff & Jeff York
In special installment of the ISA's Page 2 Screen podcast series, ISA member and optioned screenwriter Derek Assaf returns to talk with host Jeff York about the new Star Wars movie - "The Force Awakens." Both of our ISA writers are big fans of the franchise, yet critical of some of its sequels, so that makes for an involving conversat....
ISA Reviews: 2018 Oscars - Short Film Nominees & Lessons in Writing
2018’s Oscar-nominated shorts have a lot of lessons for writers.Since 2012, the AMPAS has been releasing their Oscar-nominated Animated and Live Action Shorts nationwide in theaters to an enthusiastic public. For screenwriters, these mini-films offer a number of invaluable storytelling lessons. Because....
ISA Reviews: A Quiet Place
“A Quiet Place” speaks volumes with what it doesn’t say or show.The horror genre is often most successful when it doesn’t show too much of its monsters. Better to let the audience fill in the blanks of the bogeyman hiding in the shadows. It worked in “Jaws”, “Alien”, “The Babadook”, a....
ISA Reviews: Annihilation
Alex Garland’s adaptation of “Annihilation” creates a world of wonder.Powerful is the film that doesn’t spoon feed everything to its audience, especially when it comes to science fiction. That’s why writer/director Alex Garland is such an expert in the genre. In his adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer’s novel “An....
ISA Reviews: Arrival
Arrival is science fiction that twists narrative expectations in profound ways. The best science fiction always comments on society, and indeed, Arrival from director Denis Villeneuve has a lot to say about how we communicate and interact with those alien to us. (It couldn't be more prescient in the aftermath of an election where so m....
ISA Reviews: Batman - The Killing Joke, w/ Master Class' Danny Smith
Batman: The Killing Joke misfires as an adaptation of a classic graphic novel. Producer Bruce Timm has been making brilliant and beloved adaptations of DC's most popular superhero since 1992's Batman: The Animated Series for WB Kids. But his stellar record now has a blemish on it what with this misbegotten adaptation of Batman: The Kil....
