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Revisit: The Black Stallion
Today’s films geared for children – breakneck, frenetic concoctions filled with special effects, ADHD-inducing cutting and shrill characters – can take a lesson from The Black Stallion, Carroll...
View ArticleStanding Tall
Cinema has a long-standing love affair with the delinquent. Chances are you’ve seen him before. He wears baggy clothes. He cusses. He’s about 16, always handsome and helplessly prone to losing his...
View ArticleCriminally Underrated: The Brothers Bloom
Some movies only trigger extreme responses in viewers. Films like this divide their audiences into squabbling tribes unable to compromise their entrenched opinions of whether the film is indisputably...
View ArticleMiles Ahead
In his directorial debut, Miles Ahead, Don Cheadle plays a bruised genius named Miles Davis. Perhaps you’re familiar with the trumpeter, composer and bandleader who once recorded such jazz masterpieces...
View ArticleHardcore Henry
If you’re prone to motion sickness, let me preface this review with a simple warning: Hardcore Henry is fun enough but not in any way worth making yourself ill for an hour and a half. Filmed largely...
View ArticleOeuvre: Wong Kar-wai: Chungking Express
In a 1995 interview, director Wong Kar-wai said to Cahiers du Cinéma, “There’s one thing that doesn’t ever change, and that’s the desire people have to communicate with others.” Wong’s films don’t...
View ArticleThe Boss
Melissa McCarthy is a genius. Her ability to make people laugh comes through in important and original ways. First, it’s physical. She uses her body to kick, climb and roll with a power we don’t often...
View ArticleEverybody Wants Some!!
Richard Linklater’s films may careen wildly between heady, comedic firecrackers and thoughtful, dramatic meditations on time, yet the director’s love for nostalgia and his penchant for sharp curation...
View ArticleDemolition
Early on in Demolition, Davis Mitchell (Jake Gyllenhaal), a wealthy investment banker who’s just lost his wife in a car accident, is seen weeping uncontrollably in front of a mirror. Then, like...
View Article11 Minutes
Veteran Polish filmmaker Jerzy Skolimowski’s new film 11 minutes is an enthralling and parsimonious retelling of one of the Western canon’s oldest tales, the Tower of Babel. The film is paradoxically...
View ArticleThe Invitation
Imagine the awkwardness of attending a dinner party thrown by an ex-spouse in the lavish home you both once shared. Throw in the unhealed wounds of a child’s tragic death, the aftermath of which...
View ArticleLouder Than Bombs
If “great” television is regularly framed in the context of novels, the finest cinema is analogous to the short story. The spatial constraints force a concision of language, replacing excess of plot...
View ArticleNeon Bull
As of right now, the biggest movie of 2016 is a story about constipated-looking godlike heroes punching each other. On the surface, it may not seem so different from the sea of likeminded popcorn fare,...
View ArticleHoly Hell! Mars Attacks! Turns 20
Tim Burton should’ve seen the writing on the wall when Johnny Depp turned down a role in Mars Attacks!. Sure, by 1996, the forever-linked actor and director had only previously worked together twice (a...
View ArticleOeuvre: Wong Kar-wai: Ashes of Time
As Pat Padua noted in last week’s Oeuvre entry, Wong Kar-Wai took a break in the editing of the 1994 film Ashes of Time to make Chungking Express, still one of the filmmaker’s most beloved works. Much...
View ArticleThe Jungle Book
Disney’s recent trend of remaking their classic animated features as slightly imaginative live-action cash-grab ventures continues with The Jungle Book. This is a movie that does two things: shows us...
View ArticleGreen Room
The premise is tantalizing: a punk band gets stuck in a rock club run by skinheads (led by Patrick Stewart) and must fight its way out. This may sound like the setup for an over-the-top action...
View ArticleOur Last Tango
María Nieves Rego and Juan Carlos Copes, two of the world’s most famous tango dancers, still move with grace and passion on the dance floor, even into their eighties. Only now, it is not with each...
View ArticleColonia
The history of Chile from the early ‘70s through recent past provides more than enough fodder for your average left-leaning historical docudrama. It’s got the imposed rule of a fascistic military...
View ArticleFirst Monday in May
Fashion is fascinating. It’s a creative minefield that touches on art, society and politics. When a Dior model wears “homeless” couture on the runway, commentators flipped. This wasn’t transgression,...
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