Oktay Ege Kozak

I had to watch Trolls World Tour. For solidarity's sake, you have to read my review. You get the better end of the bargain.

Trolls World Tour Is an Originality-Free Bubblegum Distraction for Very Young Kids This time around, eager-to-please Poppy (Anna Kendrick) is now the queen of the troll land. To her shock, she discovers that there are five other troll tribes that represent various genres of music: classical, country, rock, funk and techno.

This Algerian mini-Short Cuts was pretty good. My review for Paste Magazine.

Until the Birds Return Is an Engaging Anthology Drama About the Nature of Regret Until the Birds Return, a tender and empathy-driven drama from Algiers, focuses on our common regrets, and how we can move on after the wrong choices we make.

Long Live the Digital Flesh: Videodrome and Our Social Media Selves Death to Videodrome! Long live the new flesh!

The Evolution of TV Scripts in the Streaming Era And advice for those looking to break in to this new TV landscape.

Every James Bond Theme Song, Ranked No Time To Die's release may be stalled, but at least we have these songs to distract us in the meantime.

90s era twitchy, rubberface Jim Carrey is back in Sonic the Hedgehog! Otherwise, it's paint-by-numbers PG family action. My review for Paste Magazine.

Jim Carrey May Be the Only Reason to See Sonic the Hedgehog Carrey chews the scenery until there isn’t a crumb left.

With Gretel & Hansel, Oz Perkins Proves He's a Unique Voice in Modern Horror 'Gretel & Hansel' is a beautiful fairy tale spirited inside a grim slice of arthouse horror.

Here's Paste's monthly round-up Criterion releases. I wrote about The Fugitive Kind.

Best of Criterion’s New Releases, January 2020 New releases from Criterion in January include a masterpiece by Almodóvar, two triumphs from Sidney Lumet, and a little-seen early film from Jean-Luc Godard.

Terry Jones's Best Monty Python Sketches Jones was responsible for some of Monty Python's best.

Hey Buck Henry fans! Let's celebrate his bountiful and diverse screenwriting career with my article recommending seven of his greatest scripts. RIP.

7 Great Screenplays by Buck Henry Let’s celebrate Buck Henry's formidable and diverse writing career by exploring seven of his best scripts, in chronological order.

Just Mercy is not a courtroom drama masterpiece that rewrites the rules of the genre (Watch Dark Waters for that), but it's nevertheless a hopeful and inspiration story about the fight against America's injustice towards people of color.

Just Mercy Examines the Power of One Man's Hope Against the "Justice" System Just Mercy is a loving tribute to a great man who wholeheartedly believes that while the reality is grim, it's hope that keeps us alive.

I was on The Playlist's Discourse podcast with Ryan Oliver, counting down our Top 10 Films of 2019. Enjoy!

The Top 10 Films Of 2019 [Discourse Podcast] Happy Holidays, and a Happy New Year from The Discourse Podcast, the show where we discuss film news, reviews, and any other pertinent pop culture items that we feel the need to weigh in on. READ MORE: ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’: JJ Abrams’ Film Is The Last Word On The Saga, For Better...

The best film of 2019 is now on Blu-ray. Buy it!

Ad Astra (Blu-ray) The Movie: Ad Astra is a spectacularly beautiful and awe-inspiring hard-science-fiction masterpiece. Its' inspiring yet also haunting negative-space visuals depict humanity's hubris against, and isol

I was one of the voters for Paste's Best Movies of 2019. Here are the results. I'm happy to see a bunch of my Top 20 on here.

The 50 Best Movies of 2019 From under the Silver Lake all the way to the stars, here are our picks for the 50 best movies of 2019.

Unexpected New Year's present from The Playlist! I woke up to this lovingly written article about my Top 20 Films of 2019 video. Big thanks to The Playlist, and I hope you'll enjoy my picks on the last day of 2019.

Oktay Ege Kozak Presents The Best Films Of 2019 In Video Form Featuring 'Rocketman,' 'Captive State' & More Top 10 lists are great. Even when you disagree with the picks, there’s something about a Top 10 list of films that just begs to be debated. But you know what’s better than a thousand words written by someone explaining why these films are the best of the year? A music video! The Playlist contrib...

Oktay Ege Kozak - Best Films of 2019

The Aeronauts Soars Highest When It’s Firmly in the Clouds As a poetic testament to the human desire for conquering the unknown, complete with stunning IMAX shots of the balloon floating upward in the sky like a needle amongst a field of cotton, The Aeronauts soars.

https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2019/12/best-of-criterion-november-2019.html

Here's Paste's monthly Criterion roundup. I wrote about two Bette Davis classics; Now Voyager and All About Eve.

Best of Criterion’s New Releases, November 2019 Tragedy time for Criterion's best new releases in November.

In 2007, I ranked pretty much all Stephen King adaptations on film and TV. Here comes an updated version with seven new adaptations between then and now sprinkled within. Enjoy!

Stephen King's Movie Adaptations, Ranked With so many new entries, it felt like it was that time again: to update our ranking of all 56 Stephen King movie adaptations.

https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2019/11/motherless-brooklyn-edward-norton.html

Motherless Brooklyn is a solid return to old school Warner Bros noir, and pretty much nothing else. My review for Paste.

Motherless Brooklyn Succeeds at Being Little More Than Solid Genre Homage Written, directed by and starring Edward Norton, adapted from Jonathan Lethem’s novel, the film’s an unapologetic genre retread that earns the shield that precedes it.

Black and Blue Balances Tension and Theme Like a Good Thriller Should Taylor's gritty and fairly realistic ex*****on of action set pieces avoids quick-cutting and shaky-cam, and Dowling's focus on the story's thematic urgency manages to help Black and Blue stand on its own.

Check out our review of Criterion's September releases. I wrote about the affable Scottish dry comedy, Local Hero.

Best of Criterion’s New Releases, September 2019 The best from Criterion in September, including more Charlie Chaplin flicks and an Italian film disturbing enough to get lumped in with some of Bertolucci's most infamous.

Abominable, the third animated family adventure about a Yeti to be released within the course of a year, isn't revolutionary by any means, but is also super cute and fun. My review.

When It Comes to Yetis, the Third’s a Charm in Abominable Abominable is yet another family adventure about a self-sufficient and smart child protagonist struggling with grief from losing a parent, who learns to find newfound appreciation of life and youth through a friendship with an adorable fantasy/sci-fi creature.

Who Needs Adult Supervision?: 8 Horror Films Where the Kids Are on Their Own Let’s pay tribute to the brave and badass youngsters who face evil without adult supervision.

My blog of "Murdered Articles", where I post work that I was commissioned to write, but was killed by my editors for one reason or another, continues with this massive ranking of all John Landis-directed films.

This is a painful one to remember, since I spent two weeks on it, rewatching the films and writing this massive list. Since it was an evergreen article -meaning it wasn't topical since Landis wasn't about to come out with a new movie-, it was understandably put on the back burner by my editor.

I was still waiting for it to be published, until Max Landis got accused of sexual assault and my editor killed the list, which makes sense since I doubt many readers would have wanted to click on any article with the name Landis on it for a while. Hence my hatred for little Maxie, whose screenplays and general public demeanor I already can't stand, multiplied tenfold. Anyway, enjoy my ranking of daddy Landis' uneven but impressive career.

Ranking All John Landis Films Cause of Death: This is a painful one to remember, since I spent two weeks on it, rewatching the films and writing this massive list. Since it was an evergreen

The Sound of Silence is hypnotic in the way it explores how everyday sounds affect our mood. Too bad it doesn't offer much else. My review for Paste.

The Sound of Silence It’s easy to imagine a niche audience made up of religiously devout audiophiles and people who study the psychological effects of sound finding a lot to admire in The Sound of Silence.

Here's a new article from my blog "The Graveyard of Murdered Articles", where I post work that got killed by a publication for one reason or another.

Cause of death for this one: During the time when a group of states were enacting draconian abortion laws, I wanted to write an article to denounce them, while still sticking to a think piece about movies. So I thought of this HBO movie about abortion that's still relevant today. My editor and I couldn't find a common ground as to the delicate approach to this subject, especially since it was being written and edited by men. We went through three drafts, but it was eventually killed because the process was taking too much time. All of the drafts have issues, in my opinion, so I'm posting the first draft, which I think best represents my intentions.

With Anti-abortion Laws Sweeping The Country, It’s Time To Revisit "If These Walls Could Talk" Cause of Death: During the time when a group of states were enacting draconian abortion laws, I wanted to write an article to denounce them, while still stickin

https://oktayegekozak.wixsite.com/graveyardofarticles/post/the-last-midbudget-action-star-a-tribute-to-gerard-butler

I decided to create a simple blog for my articles that were killed by my editors for one reason or another. This way, I can share my unpublished work with everyone.

My first post is a fresh kill, it's just from last week. It turns out that Bilge Ebiri at Vulture was thinking of a similar angle on Gerard Butler films at the same time I was. His was published a day beforehand, so my editor at Paste understandably thought mine would come across as a copycat. Enjoy!

The Last Midbudget Action Star: A Tribute to Gerard Butler Cause of Death: Without my knowledge, another similar article was being written around the same time. When that one was published first, the editor killed mine

https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2019/08/quentin-tarantinos-feature-film-scripts-ranked.html

Quentin Tarantino's Feature Film Scripts, Ranked In honor of his box-office success with 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood', let’s rank all of Quentin Tarantino’s feature screenplays.

https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2019/08/the-shallows-47-meters-down-crawl-and-the-surfacin.html

The Shallows, 47 Meters Down, Crawl and the Surfacing of a Sub-Genre During a time when we’re increasingly aware of stories of women feeling trapped inside their workplaces, neighborhoods and even homes by unwanted, dangerous attention, it’s worth noting the surge in popularity of thrillers about literal predators obsessed with devouring their female prey.

https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2019/07/jim-jarmusch-movies-ranked.html

All 13 Jim Jarmusch Films, Ranked From the limits of control to the ways of samurai, here are all of Jim Jarmusch's fictional films, ranked from worst to best.

Stuber is almost painfully mediocre. My review for Paste Magazine.

7 Great Screenplays by Alvin Sargent In honor of Alvin Sargent's passing, let’s dig into seven of his best scripts.

https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2019/06/yesterday-review.html

Yesterday As one might expect, Yesterday is a testament to how not only The Beatles, but great art in general, enriches the human soul.

5 Great Robert Pattinson Performances that Prove He’s Right for Batman For those who haven't kept track of Pattinson since 2012, let's dig into five of Pattinson's under-seen great performances that show he just might be a great next Batman.

Every Episode of Jordan Peele’s The Twilight Zone, Ranked Let's enter another dimension, and rank all CBS All Access' episodes of 'The Twilight Zone' from worst to best.

Late Night Mindy Kaling obviously knows this world.

Ma Ma, a meagerly budgeted Blumhouse horror, begins as a clingy-new-BFF-turns-psycho thriller, spins itself into a paranoia-dipped after school special about the long-term damages of high school bullying, and sort of sticks the landing with an appropriately grotesque and gory climax that drives straigh...

Rocketman TV Spot Here's the brand new Rocketman TV spot. Enjoy!

https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2019/05/rocketman.html

Rocketman It's a bit of a miracle for one film to represent recent best examples of two separate genres, but Rocketman somehow pulls it off.