In 2010, at the age of 67, Roger Ebert reviewed The Human Centipede (First Sequence) — a horror flick that seems to exist primarily to make viewers vomit. As a professional movie critic for more than four decades, Ebert could...

BatChrist: Born (and Re-Born) in Hell

Depending on how you choose to count, there are either three or four Batman resurrections in The Dark Knight Rises. Superheroes — and especially Superman — have long been seen as Christ figures, and from its title to its returns...

The Audacity of Repetition, Reinforcement, and Clarity

Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises is an incredibly ballsy movie. I don’t mean its scope and ambition, both of which are indeed impressive. I mean the audacity of choices that could have easily backfired: following Heath Ledger’s nuanced, razor-sharp...

Needed Scars for a Better Dark Knight

How about a magic trick? I previously pulled off David Copperfield-scale wizardry by turning Robert Zemeckis’ bloated, 150-minute Contact into a lean, 53-minute masterpiece. (Yes, that’s hubris. Have you missed me?) This, admittedly, is a more modest feat — something...