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
‘Despicable Me 3’ Trailer: How the Minions Got Their Gru Back
Finally, the Despicable Me trilogy will be concluded. Until Despicable Me 4. Which I’m sure we’ll see soon enough; the first two Despicables plus the spinoff Minions earned more than $2.6 billion worldwide. People just love despicable cartoons, and also sentient Twinkees that talk in gibberish. That’s just the way it goes.
‘Dunkirk’ Trailer: Christopher Nolan Returns With an Epic War Film
At this point in his career, after rewriting the rules of superheroes with The Dark Knight and rewriting the rules of movie dreams in Inception, Christopher Nolan can basically do whatever he wants. And what he wanted to do this year, apparently, was tell the story of one World War II battle. Dunkirk, which Nolan also wrote, follows Allied soldiers during the Battle of Dunkirk, where they were pinned down by German forces and had to enact a mass evacuation. This first trailer plays up the sense of danger and dread all around these men as they’re trapped and surrounded on this beach and picked off from the skies above by German bombers.
The Worst ‘Suicide Squad’ Reviews: Critics Are Raving
Have you ever seen those movie ads on TV filled with gushing quotes from critics and thought to yourself, “I saw that movie; it was terrible. Where did they find these positive reviews?” If you have, you’re not alone — and you’re going to love ScreenCrush’s newest series, Critics Are Raving, which balances the cinematic scales with trailers full of slightly more accurate (and slightly more negative) lines from reviews. Real critics. Real quotes. Really bad movies. That’s what’s Critics Are Raving is all about.
The 2016 ScreenCrush Holiday Gift Guide For the Discerning Pop Culture Fan
Whatever holiday you celebrate in December, it comes with a lot of pressure. If you get that special someone the wrong gift, watch out. Things can get pretty ugly. That’s particularly true for pop-culture fans. They know what they want, and they probably have most of it already. Perhaps you know someone like this. Perhaps you are someone like this. (Perhaps I am someone like this.)
‘The Boss Baby’ Trailer: Alec Baldwin Plays Another Giant Baby in a Suit
I’ve got an almost 10-month-old baby at home, so I can say with absolute authority: The Boss Baby is a documentary.
Save the Rebellion in the New ‘Star Wars: Rogue One’ Trailer
Fresh from its premiere this morning on Good Morning America, here it is: The new Rogue One: A Star Wars Story trailer. Gareth Edwards directs this direct prequel to the original Star Wars about a plucky band of rebels charged with finding the weakness in the Galactic Empire’s new weapon, the Death Star.
You Can Win Marty McFly’s Sneakers From ‘Back to the Future Part II’
Back to the Future Part II imagined a future of magical technology. Home energy reactors. Flying cars. Pizza rehydrators. Fax machines in people’s bathrooms. None of these things have come true. But all anyone really seems to care about are Marty McFly’s goddamn self-lacing sneakers.
‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales’ Teaser: Captain Jack Is Back (Again)
There’s a famous part of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride in Disneyland where an ominous voice says “Dead men tell no tales!” So I guess this is an adaptation of that line? These Pirates of the Caribbean movies are getting really granular.
‘Personal Shopper’ Trailer: Kristen Stewart Sees Dead People
I didn’t get to review Personal Shopper out of the Toronto Film Festival, so here’s the short short version: I liked it! Quite a bit actually; Kristen Stewart gives an outstanding performance as a young American living in Paris, who’s desperate to make contact with a ghost, and specifically with the ghost of her dead twin brother. To fund her quest, Stewart also works as the personal shopper for a fashion icon and socialite. It’s an unusual mix of elements, but a deeply engrossing one, with Stewart nodding at her celebrity status (and perhaps the loneliness of a certain kind of isolating fame) in interesting ways.
The ‘Jack Reacher: Never Go Back’ IMAX Trailer Is Crazy And I Love It
In the first Jack Reacher: Never Go Back trailer, Tom Cruise beat up 11 guys. In this new IMAX trailer, which is only 90 seconds long, he beats up eight. That includes a guy on an airplane, a guy he kicks in the face, a guy he jumps on from a great height, a guy he punches through the window of his car, and a guy he strangles with his own telephone cord while talking to him on the phone. He also threatens this man with the line “Maybe I rip your arm off and beat you to death with it.” Oh please oh please oh please Tom Cruise, rip his arm off and beat him to death with it. I’ve always wanted to see you rip a guy’s arm off and beat him to death with it. All my friends say it’s not physically possible. But I believe in you dude! Power of positive thinking!
A Small Issue at Movie Theaters Is Becoming a Major Problem
Going to the movies in 2016 can be a frustrating situation. People texting on their phones. Exorbitant ticket prices. People talking on their phones. Sound that’s either way too loud or way too soft. People taking pictures of the screen with their phones and then posting them to Facebook in the middle of the movie. For a lot of these problems, there’s no easy solution. An experience designed to take us away from our everyday troubles is now fraught with them.
7 Classic Gene Wilder Performances Available to Watch Right Now
How to eulogize Gene Wilder? I keep sitting here trying to find words worthy of the man who gave us Willy Wonka and Dr. Frederick Frankenstein and the Waco Kid. None do him justice. The most fitting tribute to Wilder came from Wilder himself, in a classic song from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory: When traveling in the world of his creation, what we saw defied explanation...