Review: A Serviceable Debut in Uneven, if Unique, Family
There are better films in the world about career-focused professionals who discover that actually caring about something other than work is better for the soul, but I’m guessing none of […]
Review: An Interesting Question of Loyalty in an Otherwise Bland Red Joan
The latest work starring Dame Judi Dench is a very different type of spy movie. In a way, the based-on-a-true-story Red Joan asks a question about the seemingly traitorous Joan […]
Review: The End is Here in Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame
This is a nearly impossible review to write, because it’s so wholly satisfying that the inclination is to leave even the smallest plot elements a surprise for those who have […]
Review: Elisabeth Moss at the Center of a Tornado in Her Smell
Of the recent trend in female-driven fictional music-centric movies, writer/director Alex Ross Perry’s Her Smell, starring Elisabeth Moss as the lead singer of a band that made it big in […]
Review: Women Fight for Women in Gripping Girls of the Sun
My biggest concern as the story of Girls of the Sun began to unfold was the presence of a white journalist at the center of much of the action in […]
Review: Something Gets Lost Between the Songs in Teen Spirit
For reasons I’m not sure I explain, we are in a cinematic era of fake female rock/pop singers. Gone is the fascination with biopics of real singers (with the exception […]
Review: Gugu Mbatha-Raw Leads the Wholly Original, Wildly Watchable Fast Color
Filmmaker Julia Hart has a knack for casting. Three years ago at SXSW, I got to see her directorial debut, Miss Stevens, a surprisingly poignant road comedy about a high […]
Review: A Love Poem to Emily Dickinson in Wild Nights With Emily
Hoping to dispel the long-held belief that the late poet Emily Dickinson was a recluse who didn’t want a relationship or anyone to ever read her work (a mythology still […]
Review: Just Enough Scares in an Otherwise Weak The Curse of La Llorona
The greatest crime that the new James Wan-produced horror film The Curse of La Llorona commits is trying to link itself unnecessary to the universe of The Conjuring/Annabelle. Outside of […]
Review: Impressive Footage Chronicles Daily Life in Disneynature’s Penguins
People made a big deal about Marvel Studio’s 10-year anniversary recently, but another Disney imprint is also celebrating a decade of quality filmmaking this year. Granted, the stories that comprise […]
Review: Mike Leigh’s Historical Drama Peterloo Tries to Do Too Much
Mike Leigh’s last film, 2014’s Mr. Turner, was a lush biopic about the final decades of painter J.M.W. Turner’s life, with British character actor Timothy Spall elevated to a lead role […]
Review: A Moving Meditation on Death in Diane
Just a few weeks after Sebastian Lelio gifted us with an English-language remake of Gloria Bell, about a woman in her 50s looking for love and connection in Los Angeles, writer/director […]