Review: For the Cats Movie Adaptation, Best Not to Ask Why At All
The problem with Cats, the stage or movie musical, isn’t that it’s difficult to understand, as many may claim. The issue is figuring out the point of it. What life […]
Review: As It Ends an Era, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Gets Too Nostalgic for Its Own Good
I think I went into this most recent (and supposedly final) Star Wars with the right attitude: I didn’t pin my hopes and dreams on the filmmakers bringing us back […]
Review: Knives and Skin Is a Chicago-made Surreal Coming of Age Tale
Not to be confused with Knives Out, though sharing some thematic DNA with Rian Johnson’s earlier film, Brick, Knives and Skin is a stylized, teen noir meditation on suburban stagnation, […]
Review: A Familiar Cast—And a Few New Faces—Play the Same Game in Jumanji: The Next Level
I went into the last Jumanji film, Welcome to the Jungle, with such neutral expectations that I was pleasantly surprised to discover a funny, energetic adventure comedy featuring an array […]
Review: A Moving Portrait of a Quiet Life in Colewell
The sophomore effort from writer/director Tom Quinn (The New Year Parade) is exactly the kind of movie that could easily get lost in the shuffle of awards-season contenders and bigger-budget […]
Review: American Dharma Doesn’t Offer Any New Insight into Steve Bannon’s Dangerous Political Influence
It’s true for all of us, to one degree or another, that we exist in a sort of information bubble when it comes to news, politics, current events and more. […]
Review: A Master Filmmaker Gives One Last Masterclass in Varda by Agnès
A few years ago, I designed for myself a sort of one-woman film festival: the films of Agnès Varda. Then in her mid-80s, the prolific French New Wave filmmaker was […]
Review: In The Aeronauts, Thrills and Scientific Discovery Taken to New Heights
Those with a fear of heights may want to brace themselves for The Aeronauts, the story of a scientist and a balloonist who ascend in a hot air balloon over 1860s […]
Review: Risky, Adventurous Filmmaking in I See You Focuses on a Town and Family Mired in Mystery
Considering it’s only the second feature from director Adam Randall (iBoy), I See You is as ambitious and complex as many of the films I’ve seen lately from more seasoned […]
Review: White Snake Retells An Ancient Chinese Legend In Slick Animation
Technically a prequel to the ancient Chinese “Legend of the White Snake” tale (which has ben interpreted in a number of major Chinese operas, films, and television series), White Snake […]
Review: Dark Waters Is an Eye-Opening Activist Drama with an Impressive Central Performance
Although the late fall is certainly known for being the place where hard-hitting dramas, ripe for awards consideration, often land, I don’t think I was quite prepared for just how […]
Review: Smart, Fun and Expertly Crafted, Knives Out Invites Repeat Viewing
With all of his films, writer/director Rian Johnson does something rather remarkable: he takes a genre he loves and studies it until he understands all of its working parts. He […]