Essay: Todd Haynes’ Carol Is a Holiday Classic with Midwest Roots
Warning: This article contains spoilers for the film Carol (2015). Carol unfolds like a memory. The vision of 1950s America mutes and blurs the pastel colors we associate with the […]
Review: Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu Is a Dark, Tension-Filled Journey into Violent Obsession
For those keeping score, Dracula was basically the entire reason I got into horror movies specifically and then into film in general. But that Dracula (the 1931 Universal version, starring […]
Review: Timothée Chalamet Is Exceptional in A Complete Unknown About Bob Dylan’s Early Years
The title of the skillfully made Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown, is appropriate, because it traces the short road Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) took from traditional folk singer (performing mostly […]
Review: Music Theater Works’ Legally Blonde the Musical Features Standout Vocalists
It’s the top of the second act. Fans of the musical will recognize the familiar bop of “Whipped into Shape” start to play from the stellar orchestra. This is the […]
Review: The Berlin Diaries at Open Space Arts Explores a Search for Family History in Pre-War Berlin
Playwright Andrea Stolowitz’s extended Jewish family lived in Berlin in the 1930s during the rise of the Nazi party; they emigrated to New York City in 1939. Stolowitz’s parents believed […]
Review: Ghosts in the Shadow Box—Manual Cinema’s A Christmas Carol
Has there ever been a more frequently adapted story than Charles Dickens’ novella A Christmas Carol? From Reginald Owen and Alastair Sim down to George C. Scott, Albert Finney, Patrick […]
Review: In its Third Installment, Sonic the Hedgehog Finds a Worthy New Villain Voiced by Keanu Reeves
I was dreading this third installment in the Sonic the Hedgehog video game adaptation franchise, so imagine my utter shock and bewilderment when I made it to the end of […]
Review: See a Double-Barreled Wonder in Wrightwood 659’s Current Exhibits
Review by Mitchell Oldham. Social consciousnesss is at the core of Wrightwood 659’s approach to the art it chooses to display. Since its debut in 2018, the private non-commercial gallery has […]
Interview: Documentarian Joshua Oppenheimer on His Jump to Narratives with Apocalyptic Musical The End, Lyrics versus Poetry and Casting for Vulnerability
The End marks the narrative film directing debut from Oscar-nominated documentarian Joshua Oppenheimer, whose one-two punch was 2012’s The Act of Killing and 2014’s The Look of Silence. The former […]
Review: In Blank Theatre’s A Bright Room Called Day, Artists Face Exile as Danger Looms in Nazi-Era Berlin
It’s only December 13 and I’ve had enough holiday hilarity and jolly-holly spirit. For a little bah humbug, let’s talk about the rise of fascism in 1932 Germany. Fortunately Blank […]
Review: At 78, Filmmaker Paul Schrader Confronts the Past, the Truth and More in Compelling and Complicated Oh, Canada
At the age of 78, writer/director Paul Schrader is on a bit of a run with films like First Reformed, The Card Counter, Master Gardener, and now Oh, Canada (based […]
Review: The Spider-Verse Slogs On with Another Villain Story in the Mostly Backstory Actioner Kraven the Hunter
If the rumors are true (and maybe they aren’t even rumors at this point) and Sony is truly done making these nonsense, periphery Spider-Man-universe films (minus actual appearances from Spider-Man), […]