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Martin Scorsese picked a terrible time to trash comic book movies. The Oscar winner mocked Marvel films earlier this year, proclaiming they weren’t “cinema.” The comments sparked a weeks-long outcry. That’s hardly shocking in our uber-sensitive age. The ironic part? This year’s best movie hails from the pages of a DC Comic book. Todd Phillips’ “Joker” stands as the top grossing R-rated movie of all time. It’s more than that, though. Joaquin Phoenix’s sublime performance gave us an all-new look at the supervillain mind. You didn’t have to be a Comic-Con geek to appreciate its soulful storytelling, the macabre compositions or the captivating score. It helped, of course. Here are the best films of 2019 in order, starting with the creme de la creme. JOKER “All I have … are negative thoughts,” Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck tells his counselor. He’s not kidding. This tale of one man’s moral spiral is a triumph, a reboot of comic book myth that taps directly into our cultural nightmares. ...

It take a full hour for “Bombshell” to resemble an actual movie. Until that point, it’s a screeching op-ed against all things Fox News, real and imagined. The “real” part is the sexual harassment Fox News founder Roger Ailes inflicted on female employees. The imagined? Well, that’s a laundry list of far-left talking points against the network, conservatives and a certain Commander in Chief. Once the film clears its throat, and that literally takes 60 minutes, “Bombshell” morphs into a competent, often compelling tale of a harasser’s insidious web. Charlize Theron’s uncanny impression of former Fox News superstar Megyn Kelly kicks off “Bombshell.” She’s shattering the fourth wall, serving as both Fox News tour guide and director Jay Roach’s mouth piece. Remember, Roach directed previous hard-left films like “Game Change” and “Recount.” So it’s Megyn who tells us Ailes (John Lithgow) is the reason both Ronald Reagan and George Bush the elder became president. He’s that powerful, ...

Consumers are making a list, and checking it twice, about their social media fears. They worry about Facebook improperly using their personal information. Some fear Twitter deplatforms conservative voices while leaving others alone. Dennis Prager is one of many YouTube creators claiming the video portal discriminates against both Christians and conservatives. Jeff Brain has heard those complaints, and he’s done something about it. He’s the CEO of CloutHub , an expansive social media platform that overlaps with the aforementioned tech giants. CloutHub protects political speech, offers transparent reasons when users break the platform’s core rules and won’t take ideological sides. The site recently hired Deneen Borelli as its executive adviser to ensure those promises are kept. Borelli famously called out Facebook, claiming the platform throttled her video views so dramatically it cost her a gig with Blaze TV. The platform, which had a soft launch earlier this year but is ramping ...

“Midway” showed audiences are still hungry for All-American heroism. The film is set to outpace the heavily favored “Doctor Sleep” to win the box office race this weekend. Director Roland Emmerich, best known for epics like “Independence Day” and “2012,” combines cutting-edge effects and a glittery cast to bring the war movie genre back where it belongs – on movie screens nationwide. “Midway” marks the first major World War II epic in nearly 20 years, dating back to Michael Bay’s 2001 hit “ Pearl Harbor.” That movie favored Bay-centric explosions over rugged storytelling, with a finale that clocked in at roughly 40 minutes long. The film’s extensive love triangle also left some audience members conflicted. “Midway” doesn’t repeat that mistake. “Midway” puts the focus on both the blistering assault on American troops as well as the stunning firepower and strategy that helped the Allies win. The film opens in 1937, four years before the fateful Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. E...

We didn’t need another “Terminator” movie. “Dark Fate” proves it. The sixth film in the series essentially rehashes the plot from James Cameron’s 1984 classic. Been there, terminated that. Still, “Terminator: Dark Fate” gets just enough elements right, from a key character’s return to a refreshingly streamlined plot, to temporarily revive the saga. That’s about the best one can say about a franchise that should have called it quits back in 1991. “Dark Fate” opens in 1998, as a young-ish Sarah Connor watches her son, John, get killed by a T-800 model Terminator. AKA Ah-nold. The sequence is amazing for purely technical reasons. The de-aged Sarah, John and Schwarzenegger robot look exactly as they did nearly 30 years ago. Exactly. We can’t marvel at the technology too long, though. The story quickly shifts to 20 years later in Mexico City. Young Dani (Natalia Reyes) is working on an assembly line along with her brother. Unbeknownst to her, a slick new Terminator,  the ...

I’ve been an avid movie watcher for 20 years. By 2015 I was seeing, on average, three films a week at the theater alone. By mid-2016, I got the idea, since I watch so many films, why not review them as well? The concept behind Society Reviews was to become nothing more than a movie review blog. With no experience in film review, I figured I would just learn the do’s and don’ts along the way. My first full-fledged review covered the 2016 film “The Shallows” starring Blake Lively. It’s an article I still go back to today to see how far I’ve come … and how bad that review actually was. When I watched 2016’s “The Purge: Election Year” I came across my first film with an outright political agenda. I hadn’t told my early followers about my libertarian views, so I knew going full 1776 on them wasn’t a smart idea. I did address the progressive bias in film the best way I could while remaining objective in the process. This is how I decided to go forward as a critic. Instead of hating a...

At 89, Clint Eastwood isn’t slowing down. In fact, his upcoming drama “Richard Jewell” began shooting in July and is primed to make its Oscar season debut Dec. 13. Eastwood is known for his unfussy filmmaking. Still, given his age it’s reasonable to think he wants to tell as many stories as possible before he leaves this mortal coil. And then what? Eastwood is irreplaceable on a number of fronts. He’s one of the most successful actors to transition to directing, earning two Oscars for his behind-the-camera efforts (“Million Dollar Baby,” “Unforgiven.”). He hails from an era where movie stars mattered. His list of legendary performances starts with “Dirty” Harry Callahan and the Man with No Name but stretches to include Bill Munny (“Unforgiven”) and the title character in “The Outlaw Josey Wales.” Even Philo Beddoe (“Every Which Way But Loose”) conjures warm, lasting memories. He remains a box office draw well into his 80s, something many of his younger peers can only hope to r...

Conservatives attack PC culture for some very good reasons. Woke restrictions can be maddeningly inconsistent, for starters. You can’t joke about Hillary Clinton’s pantsuits but can slam a First Daughter in the ugliest ways possible – assuming her father is part of the GOP. Liberal stars can wish a Republican president dead sans consequences, while a rodeo clown More importantly, PC handcuffs seriously impair the creative process. That’s a huge factor for Hollywood storytellers. They no longer can run wild with their imaginations. Hidden, and not so hidden, restrictions lay in their path. Kurt Sutter just learned that lesson the hard way. RELATED: Mike Birbiglia Says PC Rules Can Crush Great Art Sutter, the man who gave us FX’s “Sons of Anarchy,” re-entered that gritty world two years ago with “Mayans M.C.” The spinoff series focuses on the Latino biker gang first introduced in his landmark “SOA” series. This week, Sutter got handed his walking papers . And he’s not too happy...

Perhaps it was wrong of Columbia Pictures to release “John Carpenter’s Vampires” on Halloween of 1998. The holiday and Carpenter’s name likely created some unrealistic expectations though, commercially speaking, a welcome association for his fan base. Likewise, touting in the press materials that the latest from “The Master of Horror” is also from “the director of Halloween” created a no-win scenario. No modern contemporary genre work could compete with that, not even one from Carpenter himself. Truth be told, reaching far back to a filmmaker’s earliest smash is never a good idea. Remember how Brian De Palma’s wonderful, twisted cult favorite, “Femme Fatale” from 2002, had posters noting it was “from the director of “Scarface.” It’s hard to think of two movies as dissimilar as “Femme Fatale” and “Scarface.” In the same way, Carpenter’s output has become so varied over the years, name-dropping classics like “The Thing” and “Escape from New York” probably doesn’t help matters when...

The 68 percent Rotten Tomatoes rating for Todd Phillips’ “Joker” doesn’t tell the whole story. Nor does the film’s impressive box office tally, roughly $154 million stateside  and counting, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com. Audiences are deeply split on the film’s brutal take on Batman’s arch-nemesis. Some cheer the gritty urban plight which helped fuel his mania. Others insist the screenplay is as thin as any comic book page. Barry Wurst, a HiT contributor and film critic for the Maui Times , is in the latter camp . He set up a tent and brewed a fresh cup of Joe there, too. This critic hailed “Joker” as the best movie of the year. That means it’s time for another installment of “Critic v. Critic: Joker Edition.”  TOTO : “Joker” did the near-impossible for me. It lived up to the gargantuan hype. Even the film’s detractors note that Joaquin Phoenix is mesmerizing as Arthur Fleck, so let’s skip right past that element (unless you prefer to dig in?). I’ll start by cheering...

Celebrities work overtime to shape the culture around us, from star-studded PSAs to shows hoping to change hearts and minds. Sometimes stars can make an impact by simply being honest with their fans. Metallica frontman James Hetfield did just that recently. The 56-year-old suspended his band’s tour of Australia and New Zealand late last month so he could enter rehab after roughly 18 years of sobriety. “As most of you probably know, our brother James has been struggling with addiction on and off for many years,” Metallica wrote tonight in Instagram post. The band added: “He has now, unfortunately, had to re-enter a treatment program to work on his recovery again.”             View this post on Instagram                     A Note from Lars, Kirk, and Rob ・・・ We are truly sorry to inform our fans and friends that we must postpone our upcoming tour of Australia and New Zea...

Your humble host had a very different career path in mind during the early 1990s. Artist John Rivoli I studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology, hoping to leverage my Marvel Comics addiction into a career drawing Iron Man, Thing and Thor. Then life, fate and a lack of bankable talent, got in the way. I never felt confident in my artistic skills, eventually seguing into a career in journalism. I’ll scratch the old itch occasionally, but these days I’d rather pen a movie review than break out my sketch pad. I wasn’t an art school dropout, technically, but the results were the same.  That wasn’t true for fellow FIT student John Rivoli. He followed his collegiate blueprint, embarking on an art career that connected him to some of the biggest film franchises in Hollywood. Movie studios lean on Rivoli Design Group to create merchandising art to be displayed in stores around the globe. Rivoli’s art reflects his pop culture passions, from classic cartoon characters to Roc...