Ambulance is a masterclass in action filmmaking from one of America's most polarizing and provocative auteurs. One can zero in on and nitpick the racial casting choices, and specifically the delegation of more heroic qualities to the black lead than to the white one (both flawed criminals), but doing so would be depriving oneself of a deeply human and absorbing story, perhaps Bay's most emotionally...

The audience surrogate character is a young black hydrologist, which probably doesn't hold true to Lovecraft's vision. Nicolas Cage's manic performance doesn't always lend itself to the mostly serious tone. Cage's daughter is a practicing witch and no one in the family seems to hold it against her, although she is portrayed as a bit of a klutzy, immature teenager. Conservative-minded people can find...

The movie has a lot of subversive and decidedly non-Christian actors in it (Benny Safdie, Sean Penn, the Haim sisters themselves), but right wingers who appreciate and cherish good art, which is increasingly hard to find in theaters, should not let that fact turn them off of it. Two major influences on this feature I perceive are American Graffiti and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which were also...