Review: Looking Back on Life as Bandmates in Stirring, Nostalgic Once Were Brothers
I’ll fully admit, I happen to think The Band is one of the greatest musical acts of all time, with one of the most fascinating backstories ever told. Hell, they […]
Review: Elisabeth Moss Fights to Be Believed in Smart, Surprising The Invisible Man
Ever since I saw this new version of The Invisible Man, I keep erroneously referring to it as The Invisible Woman, but the mistake is understandable. Aside from the film’s […]
Review: An Austen Heroine for a New Generation in Pretty, Pastel Emma.
Nearly every scene in Emma., the latest adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel about a selfish young woman who sees the error of her meddling ways, looks as if it would be […]
Review: Driven by Strong Performances, Ordinary Love Finds the Extraordinary in the Everyday
Long before Liam Neeson became one of the go-to guys for action-oriented films (Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Batman Begins, and of course the Taken films), he was considered one […]
Review: Latest Adaptation of The Call of the Wild Creates Real Connection with Motion-Capture Dog
At this point, any critic whose main complaint about this latest adaptation of Jack London’s novel The Call of the Wild revolves around the use of a computer-generated dog rather […]
Review: Exquisite Portrait of a Lady on Fire Explores Female Love and Agency in Poignant Period Piece
There’s a moment in Portrait of a Lady on Fire, filmmaker Céline Sciamma’s exquisite new film, when painter Marianne (Noémie Merlant) gives up on an early attempt to capture the likeness […]
Review: Corpus Christi Explores the Contradictions in Faith, Redemption and Life
Believe it or not, there were other films besides Parasite nominated for this year’s International Feature Film Academy Award; even though the Korean film stole the show (and the most […]
Review: A Vibrant Exploration of Tradition, Identity and Love in And Then We Danced
Set in the world of Georgian folk dancing, with its sharp, deliberate choreography and percussion-driven rhythms, And Then We Danced is the story of Mareb (Levan Gelbakhiani), a promising young […]
Review: Come As You Are Is a Road Trip of Self Discovery and Ability
Based loosely on a 2011 Belgian work called Hasta La Vista, as well as the life of wheelchair-bound disabilities activist Asta Philpot (who endorses this film), Come As You Are […]
Review: Italian Mafia Drama The Traitor Channels the Chaos, Glam of the ’80s
So much of director Marco Bellocchio’s (Devil in the Flesh, Fists in the Pocket) latest, The Traitor, seems so outrageous and impossible that I had no choice but to believe […]
Review: In Its American Remake, Downhill Loses Some of the Swedish Subtleties
When the critically praised 2014 Swedish film Force Majeure (directed by Ruben Östlund) debuted, it was celebrated as a critical look at the traditional family dynamic, male bravado, and the […]
Interview: The Assistant Filmmaker Kitty Green on Casting Julia Garner and the Many Forms of Workplace Toxicity
One of the most effective and disturbing films to come out of last year’s Telluride Film Festival (and last month’s Sundance Film Festival) was one that very few people had […]