Review: Identity and Gender Fluidity at the Heart of the Surreal and Daring Kill the Jockey
I have seen Luis Ortega’s Kill the Jockey (El Jockey) twice this year and am still in awe at the big swings it takes, how it keeps audiences on their […]
Review: James Gunn Launches a New Movie Studio and New Take on a Classic Super Hero in Superman for a New Generation
Kickstarting a new superhero franchise is an almost impossible task, especially when the hero in question has as long and varied a history as Superman. But that hasn’t kept Warner […]
Review: Heads of State Puts John Cena and Idris Elba on the World Stage—Then Strands Them There
The funniest thing about the new action-comedy Heads of State is the casting, and I mean no disrespect to either John Cena (playing action star-turned-U.S. President Will Derringer) or Idris […]
Review: A Brave Afro-Colombian Woman Faces the Powers That Be in Documentary Igualada
Three years ago two outsiders broke the stranglehold Colombia’s right wing parties had over the country when they were elected president and vice-president: the former M19 guerrilla fighter and senator […]
Review: Afternoons of Solitude Takes an Unconventional Approach to a Bloody Tradition
“It is impossible to believe the emotional and spiritual intensity and pure, classic beauty that can be produced by a man, an animal and a piece of scarlet serge draped […]
Review: The Old Guard 2 Gets a New Director, Updated Cast But Can’t Recapture the Momentum of the 2020 Original
One of the biggest early hits of the pandemic was Netflix’s 2020 film The Old Guard, based on the graphic novel by writer Greg Rucka and illustrator Leandro Fernandez. Charlize […]
Review: The Franchise’s Seventh Entry, Jurassic World: Rebirth, Follows a Formula But Misses the Original’s Sense of Awe
With seven films across more than three decades, the Jurassic Park/World installments have been all over the place in terms of quality, filmmaking prowess, and storytelling. But the elements that […]
Review: In Familiar Touch, Supportive Care Workers Ease an Aging Woman’s Move to a New Life
Ruth is a retired cook. As the film opens, she’s in her cozy kitchen preparing lunch for a guest, setting the table, and then getting dressed up. The guest is […]
Review: Actor Mariska Hargitay Turns to Filmmaking for My Mom Jayne, Excavating the Woman Behind Jayne Mansfield’s Legend
A few documentaries of late have dealt with the children of famous people, searching for stories about a parent’s life because they have few or no memories of them. The idea […]
Review: Shifting from Horror to Action, Megan 2.0 Expands on the AI Concepts of the First Film
Produced by genre titans James Wan and Jason Blum, and helmed by returning writer-director Gerald Johnstone, M3GAN 2.0 does something bold in the horror field: it shifts tones from the […]
Review: In High-Speed Racing Drama F1, Brad Pitt Half-Heartedly Plays a Driver Past his Prime
Let me begin by saying I’m not going to begrudge anyone fully embracing the Vroom Vroom of F1: The Movie for the simple fact that the car-racing sequences are one […]
Review: Filmmaker Rachel Elizabeth Seed Explores Her Photojournalist Mother’s Life, Work and More in Deeply Personal Documentary A Photographic Memory
I’m perhaps most leery of documentaries in which the filmmaker is also, to a degree, the subject. Such is the case with Rachel Elizabeth Seed’s deeply personal film A Photographic […]