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
‘Saturday Night Live’ Will Return With Live Episodes in October
‘SNL’ is entering its 46th season.
The 25 Most Important Sex Scenes in Film History
Boiling down 125 years to 25 steamy scenes.
According to a New Poll, Tom Hanks Is America’s Favorite Movie Star
Tom Hanks, America’s sweetheart.
Requiem for a Movie Theater (And Maybe All Movie Theaters?)
The Ziegfeld Theater isn’t much to look at from the outside. True, it has that old-fashioned marquee, with the little light bulbs and the name “Ziegfeld” written in perfect cursive, as if God himself signed his name to a building. But otherwise its exterior is totally nondescript; maybe even ugly. It’s a bland gray and black box amidst the offices and hotels on 54th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues. It’s not attention grabbing. It’s easy to walk by without giving it a second thought. And clearly thousands of people do exactly that every day; the theater has been losing money for years (over $1 million annually, according to The New York Post). Although the theater’s leaseholder, Cablevision, has made no formal announcement, today is apparently its last day as a functioning movie theater. After tonight’s 10PM showing of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the Ziegfeld closes forever.
What’s Expiring on Netflix Instant: February 2016
Let’s hope the Terminator really will be back, because he’s leaving Netflix in a few days.
New Netflix Instant Releases: February 2016
With each new month, the list of new titles on Netflix is more and more about the list of new titles from Netflix. In February, Netflix has a brand-new sequel to the martial-arts classic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (titled Sword of Destiny), plus a standup special from Hannibal Buress, the new series Love from producer Judd Apatow, and the revived version of Full House, Fuller House, which may or may not star a ghost dog.
Will Smith Won’t Attend This Year’s Oscars Amidst Mounting Controversy Over Nominees
The Oscars were already overwhelmingly white; now they’ve gotten even whiter.
‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Review: The Saga Continues…
The original Star Wars was driven by nostalgia for pulp magazines, Saturday-morning serials, and a simpler era with clear-cut heroes and villains. The new Star Wars is driven by nostalgia for the original Star Wars, and a simpler era when that title evoked words like “adventure” and “excitement,” and not words like “the taxation of trade routes,” and “Jar Jar Binks.” The characters in Star Wars: The Force Awakens are all searching for something of great importance to the galaxy far, far away. I won’t reveal what this MacGuffin is, but I will tell you what it represents: that old Star Wars magic. Can director J.J. Abrams and the rest of the saga’s new creators find it?
‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ Trailer: The End Is Nigh for Marvel’s Mutants
I’m an old enough nerd to remember when the first X-Men movie came out in theaters. At that time, comic books were not the number one driver of all things in popular culture. Bryan Singer’s X-Men certainly featured all the comic’s beloved heroes and villains, but there did seem like there was a concerted effort to tamp down some of their comic-book-ness. Everyone dressed in black. There was no spandex. The story was grounded in weighty real-world themes like prejudice and vengeance. It was the X-Men you knew, but watered down just a bit. It was a rum and coke, not a shot of gin. X-Men: Apocalypse, in comparison, looks like a bottle of Beefeater.
‘Joy’ Review: Jennifer Lawrence Is Totally Miscast in This Business Biopic
Jennifer Lawrence was 24 when she shot Joy. Her character, Joy Mangano, was 34 when she invented the Miracle Mop and became one of the first stars of the QVC network. This fact remains inescapable throughout Joy. Lawrence remains watchable in Joy because, as one of our best young actors, she can’t help but be watchable. But she’s totally miscast as a divorced mother of two who’s been repeatedly beaten down by life’s disappointments. This part was meant for the Jennifer Lawrence of a 2025, not the one of 2015.