Nick Schager, Author at The Playlist

Martin Scorsese’s ‘Silence’ Is A Beautiful Passion Project For The Devoted Only [Review]

December 16, 2016 10:23 am

“Silence” opens in mist, and that pervasive haziness quickly comes to serve as a visual metaphor for the unresolvable spiritual crisis at the heart of Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of Shusaku Endo’s 1966 novel, ...

Jessica Chastain Is A Force Of Nature In The Pulse-Pounding ‘Miss Sloane’ [Review]

Nick Schager

November 22, 2016 4:27 pm

Reviews

Jessica Chastain is a great actress, but with “Miss Sloane,” she also proves that she’s a great movie star. Headlining the sort of pulse-pounding adult thriller that studios rarely produce anymore — and, as evi...

‘Bad Santa 2’ Starring Billy Bob Thornton Delivers On Its Promise Of Pure, Putrid Nastiness [Review]

Nick Schager

November 22, 2016 11:23 am

Reviews

In most instances, comedy sequels stink. Thus, with such a low bar to clear, “Bad Santa 2” is a triumph, at least on the order of an “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues” or “22 Jump Street” — which is to say, it...

‘The Accountant’ Starring Ben Affleck Has All The Excitement Of An IRS Audit [Review]

Nick Schager

October 12, 2016 9:23 am

Reviews

“I like incongruities,” says Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) to fellow number-cruncher Dana Cummings (Anna Kendrick) in “The Accountant,” and so too does his film, whose abject cartoonishness is wholly out of wha...

Werner Herzog’s ‘Lo And Behold: Reveries of the Connected World’ Is A Curious, Awe-struck & Terrified Look At The Web [Review]

Nick Schager

August 17, 2016 5:59 pm

Reviews

Suggesting that modern cinema’s most prescient work may yet turn out to be “The Terminator,” Werner Herzog’s “Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World” takes a simultaneously curious, awe-struck, and terr...

Michel Gondry’s ‘Microbe & Gasoline’ Is Refreshingly Low-Key [Review]

Nick Schager

June 29, 2016 5:00 pm

Reviews

There’s almost no limit to the imagination of director Michel Gondry (“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” “The Science of Sleep”), and as the incessantly precious whimsy of 2013’s intolerable “Mood Indigo”...

‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows’ Can’t Escape The Ooze Of Its Cheeseball Tone & Action [Review]

Nick Schager

June 2, 2016 3:00 am

Reviews

2

The rebooted “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” franchise is custom-made for those who found producer Michael Bay’s other toy-centric series, “Transformers,” too mature, complex and understated. And in its second g...

Review: Pitiful, Unpleasant Sequel ‘Alice Through The Looking Glass’ Starring Johnny Depp & Mia Wasikowska

Nick Schager

May 24, 2016 8:00 am

Reviews

1

The Hatter (Johnny Depp) is less mad than sad in “Alice Through the Looking Glass,” and that’s also true of the film itself, a pitiful sequel that decisively sullies any goodwill one might have felt for these D...

Author Nick Schager