Dom Sinacola

Jan 29, 2025 | portlandmercury.com | Dom Sinacola

With an almost mathematical precision to its pulpiness, The Prosecutor, the latest action-thriller from Hong Kong superstar Donnie Yen, doles out a brutal fight scene every 25 to 30 minutes. Across two brisk hours, violence shifts proportionately between bouts of athletic knuckling, street brawls, shoot-outs, car chases, foot chases, impalings, and pummelings—all spaced out evenly, each a deeply satisfying slice of modern Cantonese-language martial pop art.

Jan 16, 2025 | portlandmercury.com | Dom Sinacola

Wolf Man is the latest remake in a culture haunted by remakes. Look only a few weeks back to Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu, an adaptation of F.W. Murnau’s 1922 Nosferatu, which was an adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, with key details and names altered to avoid legal action.

Jan 8, 2025 | portlandmercury.com | Dom Sinacola

Having only premiered in New York, LA, and at a bevy of fashionable festivals, The Brutalist enters most US cinemas this week with plenty of accolades at the wings. These include the Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique Award for Best Film and the Silver Lion for director Brady Corbet at the Venice International Film Festival, a portfolio of major critics’ associations wins and nominations, and, as of this past Sunday, three Golden Globe awards.

Dec 25, 2024 | portlandmercury.com | Dom Sinacola

I won’t pretend to be a box office expert, but if any movie studio executive tries to claim that the theater-going industry is in its death throes, I implore you to think about the many landfills-worth of branded popcorn buckets that have only flooded your local cinemas because audiences demanded them.

Dec 24, 2024 | portlandmercury.com | Dom Sinacola

“A complete unknown” is a lyric plucked from Bob Dylan’s 1965 single “Like a Rolling Stone,” a song that could be used as a major signpost to mark Dylan’s mid-’60s ascent from popular musician to genre-shattering voice of a generation. Instead, writer-director James Mangold treats the line like a sufficient answer to a question that’s barely asked.