Café Society
From the first few bars of 1930s jazz filling the theater, Café Society reminds its audience that they are entering Woody Allen’s world. These days there will be plenty of people, for various though...
View ArticleEquals
Visually sleek, Equals displays the emotional intelligence of a 13-year-old boy. As a dystopian tale of forbidden love, the film seems pitiful when compared to The Lobster—another A24 feature from this...
View ArticleRediscover: Jawbreaker
From the first strains of “Rock Around the Clock” in 1955’s Blackboard Jungle, high school has been the proving ground and arena for every major life event in a teenager’s life, but nowhere is it...
View ArticleHunt for the Wilderpeople
This summer, indie movies are headed into the wild. Both Captain Fantastic and Swiss Army Man drop audiences off in the thick of the forest. And now the New Zealand film Hunt for the Wilderpeople takes...
View ArticleGarnet’s Gold
Ed Perkins finds an invaluable subject in Garnet Frost, the central figure in the documentary film Garnet’s Gold. Garnet is whimsical and romantic—clearly a brilliant man and ever-busy with one project...
View ArticleFrom the Vaults of Streaming Hell: Zombeavers
If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it mean all the people have already been killed by zombie beavers? The crafty, undead rodents in this streaming horror-comedy gem may...
View ArticleAbsolutely Fabulous: The Movie
In the last 25 years or so, television has brought just about every taboo into American living rooms to no great fuss. The debut episode of “Game of Thrones” ended with a major character shoving a...
View ArticleLights Out
David F. Sandberg’s low-budget 2013 short “Lights Out” is deeply creepy yet so modestly scoped that it’s basically a horror haiku, a quick bite whose impressions linger long after its three-minute...
View ArticleOeuvre: Soderbergh: Out of Sight
It was with 1998’s Out of Sight, his seventh feature, that Steven Soderbergh finally made a stylish and sexy follow-up worthy of his debut, sex, lies, and videotape. This was the film critics and fans...
View ArticleDon’t Think Twice
Even though people in their thirties and forties doing improv may draw the same eye rolls as those writing a music blog, there is something commendable about going up on stage and winging it. But...
View ArticleSummertime
Lesbian films – or, more broadly, wlw films – generally fall into two categories: ones that feature either happy or tragic endings for their lesbians. The former is sadly rarer, while the latter can...
View ArticleChildhood of a Leader
With an influence like Jean-Paul Sartre’s short story of the same name, it’s no wonder The Childhood of a Leader plays like a film school exercise in pretention, ready to be showered in exemplary...
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Revisit: Don’t Look Back
It’s fitting that three of the best rock ‘n’ roll films of all time emerged from the genre’s most important decade: the ‘60s. A Hard Day’s Night (1964) may play to the Beatles’ goofier side, but...
View ArticleOn Meditation
Western medicine is finally catching up to Eastern traditions. Mindfulness is now a key component of many plans to improve both mental and physical health. In a digital age where mindless distractions...
View ArticleMisconception
Misconception is the fifth feature-length documentary from director Jessica Yu. It purports to be an exploration of the world’s rapidly increasing human population, especially of state interventions...
View ArticleNerve
Teens today with their Snapchat and Facebook—it’s no wonder people can’t spell correctly and that they let emojis do their talking for them. I sound like a senior citizen because that’s how you have to...
View ArticleHoly Hell! The Rock Turns 20
Twenty years ago the controversial artistic commodity currently known as “Bayhem” had yet to become hot button film crit jargon, but the beginnings of its trappings were on view in The Rock. After...
View ArticleOeuvre: Soderbergh: The Limey
In the late ‘90s, Steven Soderbergh began a run of films that marked his most commercially and critically successful period. Out of Sight, Erin Brockovich, Traffic and Ocean’s Eleven made a combined...
View ArticleBad Moms
Bad Moms wouldn’t be so bad if the moms were allowed to be badder. The premise has the potential to be the new Bridesmaids, especially during a summer when all eyes are on female-led comedies. Here is...
View ArticleJason Bourne
In 2014, Kiefer Sutherland returned as Jack Bauer, his well-worn former government agent character, in “24: Live Another Day.” On the run and haunted, Jack has nothing left to live for when he is drawn...
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