In 2007, writer/director/editor Jason Eisener won a contest for directing the best grindhouse trailer for the Robert Rodriguez/Quentin Tarantino collaboration Grindhouse. The trailer was for a fake film called Hobo with a Shotgun, and four years later, Eisener made this…
The plight of Irani-born writer/director/producer Jafar Panahi (Taxi, The Circle, Three Faces) has become known around the globe: he has been harassed and even imprisoned recently by the government of his home country for supporting artistic independence. The result of…
Part biopic, part history lesson, part English class, the documentary Turn Every Page explores the 50-year professional relationship and friendship between author Robert Caro (now 87 years old) and his longtime editor Robert Gottlieb (now 91). Their work together began…
In 2018, writer Sev Ohanian and writer/director Aneesh Chaganty released a unique and tension-filled missing-person mystery calling Searching that features a story told entirely on screens—as in computer and phone screens, with multiple windows open, while a father (John Cho)…
From the opening titles of The Seven Faces of Jane: “In the summer of 2021, eight filmmakers were invited to create a section of a feature film without any knowledge of what came before or after it. They were encouraged…
There’s a fine line between ridiculous and stupid, and many of Gerard Butler’s movies dance along that line, often tripping over themselves and landing on the stupid side of things. But every so often, he hits his stride, takes a…
Admittedly, I’m a sucker for a Western, even if it’s a half-assed attempt at one using all the tropes that the genre has at its disposal. But at some point, I have to draw the line, and today that line…
On paper, this film actually makes sense, even if it might not work out in the end. Actor Tom Hanks and his wife, actor/musician Rita Wilson, were watching the 2015, Oscar-nominated Swedish film A Man Called Ove (based on the…
The only big gripe I have about the new evil-robot thriller M3GAN is that there isn’t a single second of this movie where we don’t know that at some point the life-like android companion is going to turn on humans…
Shot by cinematographer Luc Montpellier in muted tones that almost make the film look like it was shot in black-and-white and then tinted to match the mood of each moment, writer/director Sarah Polley’s Women Talking (based on the book by Miriam Toews)…
It’s the last Friday of the year, so it’s time to reveal my Best of the Year list. As always, I was able to squeeze in about 10-12 additional films in the last couple weeks of December—mostly titles that others…
As I am prone to do every year, I separate documentaries into their own Best of the Year list, not because I feel they should be judged any differently than narrative films, but because I want to call attention to…
The simple fact is that I likely wouldn’t be reviewing Joyride were it not for the presence of Olivia Colman as Joy, an attorney who is preparing to journey across Ireland with her newborn in tow to give away the…
Sometimes with a music biopic, it’s the music that carries the day when the story seems painfully familiar. So why do most music biopics feel like they follow the same blueprint (as was expertly mimicked in Walk Hard)? Primarily because…
A difficult watch at times (but not for the reasons many are saying), director Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale (based on the acclaimed play by Samuel D. Hunter, who also wrote the screenplay) is the sometimes-disturbing, often-uplifting story of reclusive college…
In one of the most emotionally fueled documentaries you’re likely to see this year, Wildcat tracks the story of Harry Turner, a young British veteran of the war in Afghanistan who struggles with PTSD and depression and has since fled…
I have a very clear memory of watching 2004’s Shrek 2, seeing (and hearing) the new character of Puss in Boots for the first time, and thinking “Well, that’s my new favorite character in this franchise.” And that really hasn’t…
Based on the play of the same name by Kaite O’Reilly (who also co-wrote the screenplay with co-director and co-star Celyn Jones), The Almond and the Seahorse is about as misguided as it is well-meaning, and it’s a lethal combination.…
From the French-born writer/director who brought us The Father a couple years back, Florian Zeller unveils The Son, based on his play of the same name (as was The Father and get ready, because he has another play called The…
Aside from the small contingent of moviegoers who believe 2009’s Avatar is the greatest affront to movie making in the history of film, the film connected with most people in the world on a level that led to its becoming…
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