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 of Bohemian […]
Review: Something Gets Lost Between the Songs in Teen Spirit
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 school teacher […]
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 in play […]
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 just feeling […]
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 the Disneynature […]
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 that garnered […]
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 Kent Jones […]
Review: The Early Life of a Jazz Age Star in The Chaperone
Admittedly, most of the people who go to see The Chaperone probably don’t know much about the pre-fame life of silent film star Louise Brooks (played here by Haley Lu Richardson, most […]
Review: Let the Spirit – and Aretha – Move You in Amazing Grace
If I have to convince you to go see this documentary chronicling the two Aretha Franklin performances at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles that […]
Review: Laika Continues a Strong Run with Adventurous, Friendly Missing Link
As far as animation houses go, the stop-frame animation loyalists at Laika have a perfect record in my book, with a run that includes ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls, Kubo and the Two Strings, […]
Review: A Gritty, Subversive Re-Imagining of Hellboy
You don’t have to like one cinematic version of Hellboy over the other. I wildly adore the two previous films directed by Guillermo del Toro. They are inventive, stylish, beautiful creations of […]
Review: The Gospel of Eureka Provides a Welcome Lesson in Community
At just an hour and 15 minutes long, The Gospel of Eureka manages to tell quite a story about a small town in Arkansas that celebrates pageantry and panache in equal measure. In […]
