Into the Forest
Into the Forest might be the first apocalyptic sci-fi movie to deliberately underplay its own apocalypse. The film, directed by Patricia Rozema and adapted from a 1996 novel by Jean Hegland, follows...
View ArticleIndignation
Philip Roth kicked off his literary career with 1959’s Goodbye Columbus, a typical first effort in many respects, concerned with the lessons learned by one Neil Klugman as he butts up against...
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Rediscover: Bitter Rice
In the documentary, The Gleaners and I (2000), Agnès Varda professed her love for the human form while stooped over, at work or even rifling through a dumpster. Varda would have found much to love in...
View ArticleGleason
Gleason could have been a documentary about a few things: the life of an ALS patient, the ongoing formation of a legacy for a pro-athlete, the creation of a charity. But it makes one thing, the most...
View ArticleCan We Take a Joke?
Can We Take a Joke? is a piercing inquiry into the tug-of-war between freedom of speech and off-color standup comedy. Ted Balaker’s brief but pithy documentary pushes past the partisan...
View ArticleCriminally Underrated: Outrage
Takeshi Kitano’s entire oeuvre is vastly underrated. His status as a master filmmaker is debatable, but his films are distinct, elaborate world-building efforts. His grand cinematic voice is predicated...
View ArticleOeuvre: Soderbergh : Erin Brockovich
Steven Soderbergh doesn’t immediately come to mind when you think “woman’s director.” It wasn’t until Erin Brockovich that one of his films was led by a woman. The true story of a small-town woman who...
View ArticleSuicide Squad
The modern DC Cinematic Universe just can’t seem to get the engine started. Man of Steel was divisive as hell and while it follow-up Batman v Superman had its ardent defenders (this reviewer included),...
View ArticleNeither Heaven Nor Earth
Directorial debut Neither Heaven Nor Earth is a stentorian statement of intent that Clément Cogitore is a cinematic upstart worthy of attention. The film is a high-degree-of-difficulty work, both a war...
View ArticleLittle Men
In 2014’s Love Is Strange, Ira Sachs surveyed the changing landscape of modern New York through a story built around a collision between the private and the public, with real-estate troubles and...
View ArticleSun Choke
We’re all guilty of living vicariously, of envying others. But that relatively natural behavior is a long way from stalking, from possessing and inhabiting someone else’s life. The kidnapping at the...
View ArticleThe Mind’s Eye
The nostalgia factor often finds fertile ground in horror and sci-fi, especially when it comes to extrasensory abilities and the paranormal. There’s a reason “The X-Files” and “Twin Peaks” have been...
View ArticleRediscover: Police Story 3: Supercop
There’s a long list of things that should make Police Story 3: Supercop unwatchable: the comically bad dubbing, the protagonist’s chauvinism, the slapstick jokes (most keenly, when Jackie Chan rolls...
View ArticleHoly Hell! MST3K: The Movie Turns 20
A “Mystery Science Theater 3000” reboot is happening. No more speculation. This is real. And since it’s been picked up by Netflix, the show’s reboot season will see its movie-length episodes unhindered...
View ArticlePete’s Dragon
Pete’s Dragon is a continuation of a new Disney trend – the feral boy and his animal friends – that started this past March with The Jungle Book. Both movies tell tales of boys whose parents died and...
View ArticleHell or High Water
The changing face of the American West is something Cormac McCarthy has masterfully explored in his novels, one of which was made into an Oscar-winning film. And largely because of this, the notion of...
View ArticleOeuvre: Soderbergh: Traffic
For the Best Director Oscar Steven Soderbergh received, he crafted one of his most sprawling and challenging efforts. Traffic, based on the British TV series of the same name, is an incendiary look at...
View ArticleFlorence Foster Jenkins
Movies like Florence Foster Jenkins rarely get released in the summertime. Studios usually hold them back until the end of the fall so they can stay fresh in the minds of awards season voters when it...
View ArticleSausage Party
Too many studio comedies play it safe. If you look at the funniest films of the past 10 years, most are subversive in their humor, refusing to kowtow to a dumbed-down PG-13 rating. Comedy needs teeth,...
View ArticleAnthropoid
Anthropoid is better than your average WWII film. But it’s not for the faint of heart, and maybe only for the serious masochist. The UK-French-Czech historical thriller takes on a chapter in WWII...
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