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
‘O.J.: Made in America’ Is Essential Viewing
I’m a freshman in high school. After months of legal proceedings, the jury finally reaches a verdict in the O.J. Simpson case. For the only time in my four years of secondary education, everything stops. Several classes worth of kids pile into the only room on the hall with a cable television. The room is packed. Kids are literally sitting on each other's laps because there’s nowhere else for them to go. It gets quiet.
Daniel Craig Reportedly ‘Done’ as James Bond, Turned Down an Insane Amount of Money to Play 007 Again
How much would it take to get you to play James Bond? Personally, I would do it for a couple grand if they let me keep my wardrobe and the watch and the car.
‘Batman v Superman’ Review: Titans Clash (Eventually, After Like Two Hours)
Zack Snyder makes superhero movies, but his characters don’t act very heroic. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice features all the other trappings of the superhero genre: Capes, gadgets, outlandish muscles, punching stuff. But the two stars aren’t noble or chivalrous; they’re violent, aggressive, and angry — mostly at each other instead of the bad guys. In Snyder’s formulation, protecting the world from evil isn’t a gift or a calling; it’s a burden. And that feeling is reflected in the movie itself, a burdensome 150- minute slog about two men fighting over who is in the right when both are very clearly in the wrong.
Why Do We Still Love the ‘Die Hard’ Formula?
Over the last 30 years, the terrorists of the world have repeatedly found new ways to torment and intimidate the planet.
Jean-Claude Van Damme to Headline Amazon Original Series
Whenever I’m in a high pressure situation where I need to lead people to victory, I always quote Jean-Claude Van Damme in Street Fighter: “Who wants to go home ... and who wants to go with me?” It never fails. Always fires people. That’s the JCVD effect.
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.
‘Concussion’ Review: Will Smith’s NFL Drama Is Hugely Important, But Not Very Good
Dr. Bennet Omalu, the subject of the new biopic Concussion, was the first man to publish a study linking head injuries suffered playing football to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), and his pioneering work as a forensic pathologist deserves recognition and appreciation. But that pioneering work involved things like autopsies, painstaking research, and lots of paperwork — not exactly the stuff of blockbusters — combined with (at least in Concussion’s telling of the tale) a lot of scolding and righteously indignant speeches. This subject is hugely important, but as shaped by writer/director Peter Landesman, it’s not especially cinematic.
‘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?
‘The Hateful Eight’ Review: Quentin Tarantino Makes the Old West New Again
Quentin Tarantino is the master of the comeback. Throughout his career, he’s rediscovered and revitalized the careers of one faded star after another; John Travolta in Pulp Fiction, Pam Grier in Jackie Brown, David Carradine in Kill Bill. Tarantino’s latest, The Hateful Eight, is his boldest reclamation project yet, an attempt to rejuvenate not just a single actor’s fortunes, but an entire medium of storytelling.