The setup is fairly straightforward even if the purpose is elusive. The latest film from directing team Lisa Robinson and Annie J. Howell (2011’s Small, Beautifully Moving Parts) concerns Claire […]

When I interviewed La La Land writer-director Damien Chazelle a couple months ago for Ain’t it Cool News, we discussed one of the film’s themes being the power of rejection […]

A few years ago, writer-director Mike Mills (Thumbsucker) made a touching and uproarious film that was both a tribute to his father and all fathers called Beginners, which resulted in […]

Whatever you think this movie is about probably isn’t exactly right. If, based on the trailer, you think it’s about a monster who takes up residence inside a high school […]

LIVE BY NIGHT I’ll admit, I was confused even by the title of this film, since most of the action takes place in sunny Florida. But as I got deeper […]

One of the last films I watched in 2016 (and it managed to crack my Top 20 of the year in the process) was South Korean horror thrill ride Train […]

One of my favorite documentaries of 2016 was also about one of my personal heroes from way back. The film is director Steven Okazaki’s Mifune: The Last Samurai about the […]

Much like the memoir that inspired it, Notes on Blindness (from co-directors James Spinney and Peter Middleton) attempts the seemingly impossible, especially for a visual art form: to capture the […]

There are children’s films, and then there are films with children in them that seem more geared toward adults. Spanish-born director J.A. Bayona seems to specialize in the latter, with […]

Filmmaker Martin Scorsese has spent most of his career presenting us with characters who, in any other movie, might be looked upon as the bad guys. But he gets us […]

I’m the damn fool who waits until the year actually ends before rolling out my Best Of… list every year, and that’s because I’m often able to squeeze in about […]

My formative years were spent on nerdy endeavors. As such, while other 13-year-old girls were obsessed with boys, clothes and makeup, I was lost in space. I’d found Star Wars, […]