Review: Director Neil Jordan Models Marlowe on the Masters of Noir Storytelling
A key element to most film noir crime dramas is that the plot is almost always impossible to follow (at least upon a single viewing), and in the end, it […]
Interview: Spouses and Creative Collaborators Dave Franco and Alison Brie on Somebody I Used to Know, Coming-of-Age Films and the Freedom in Streaking
I have a long history with Dave Franco that goes back to a time when I was invited to visit the New Orleans set of 21 Jump Street. The invite […]
Review: Let It Be Morning Creates a Poignant, Quietly Devastating Story of Home, Family and the Walls that Keep Us Apart
Based on Palestinian-born author Sayed Kashua’s book of the same name, Let It Be Morning tells the story of Sami (Alex Bakri), a Palestinian-born Israeli citizen living in Jerusalem who […]
Review: Somebody I Used to Know Channels Classic Rom-Coms for an Art House Crowd
Co-written by spouses and frequent collaborators Dave Franco and Alison Brie (and directed by Franco), Somebody I Used to Know is essentially an art-house adaptation of My Best Friend’s Wedding, […]
Review: Lacking Momentum and Charisma, Rom-Com Your Place or Mine Squanders the Best of the Genre
As has been proven time and time again, making a contemporary rom-com that both entertains and endears itself onto its audiences is tricky business. All too often, recent entries into […]
Review: Sharper Uses a Flexible Storytelling Structure and Strong Cast to Create a Gripping Neo-Noir
In a slight twist in the recent trend in movies to stick it to the rich, first-time director Benjamin Caron’s Sharper has nearly every character trying to stick it to […]
Review: The Least Impressive of the Franchise, Magic Mike’s Last Dance Glimpses Moments of Strip-Tease Greatness
Whereas the original Magic Mike wasn’t afraid to explore the seedier side of male stripping and Magic Mike XXL leaned more into the joy of dancing and how power could […]
Review: With Few Visuals and Limited Narrative, The Outwaters Is a Frustrating, if Brutal, Low-Budget Thriller
Perhaps it’s not so surprising that the new horror offering The Outwaters is being released in the immediate aftermath of the much-talked-about Skinamarink, since both films have an experimental visual […]
Sundance Review: Female Friendship and Film Noir Combine in a Savage, Atmospheric Eileen
One of the higher-profile works at Sundance this year (at least in terms of star power) was director William Oldroyd’s (Lady Macbeth) noir-ish tale of a female friendship gone horribly […]
Sundance Review: Fair Play Explores Volatile Gender Dynamics at Work and at Home
Rarely does a first-time director launch out of the gate with as much force and conviction as writer-director Chloe Domont does with Fair Play, a work that examines the power […]
Sundance Review: STILL: A Michael J. Fox Movie Shares the Actor’s Triumphs, Struggles and Sense of Humor
My only significant complaint about director Davis Guggenheim’s (An Inconvenient Truth, He Named Me Malala) Michael J. Fox documentary STILL is that it isn’t long enough. The film spends ample […]
Review: Full Time Creates a Life in Constant Motion as Single Mom Fights to Keep Her Life Together
Full Time is set in Paris, that glamorous city of our dreams—but everything that happens to our heroine, Julie (Laure Calamy) happens every day to single moms everywhere trying to keep […]