Revisit: My Girl
Film is a medium that has the power to define you. Watching a particular movie for the first time can be akin to discovering a piece of music that makes everything click into place. So it was for me...
View ArticleMr. Roosevelt
Mr. Roosevelt, a homespun comedy written and directed by “Master of None’s” Noël Wells, toes the line between warmly endearing and overly precious. Shot in and around Austin, Texas, the film has a...
View ArticleCoco
The Grim Reaper is no stranger to children’s movies, and with each visit he’s arrived as a shock. Ever since Bambi’s mother and a nameless hunter crossed paths in the forest, four generations of kids...
View ArticleCall Me By Your Name
For a film so dependent on the withholding of desire and physical contact, Call Me By Your Name is incredibly tactile. Set in a villa in the Italian countryside one summer in the early ‘80s, it’s...
View ArticleBombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story
Glamour and beauty were synonymous with Austrian-American film actress Hedy Lamarr (1914-200). But as she quipped, “Any girl can look glamorous, all she has to do is stand still and look stupid.”...
View ArticleNaples ‘44
A film does not need sound to validate its existence, a fact demonstrated by the voluminous glories of the silent era and the ample experimental and non-narrative work created thereafter. Yet in all...
View ArticleThe Breadwinner
Animation is often a medium intended for imaginative storytelling and fantastical realms, but realism is the primary focus in The Breadwinner. The thematic content of this animated drama runs contrary...
View ArticleHoly Hell! Face/Off Turns 20
When director John Woo brought his signature HK gun-ballet-action style to the West, it was often with disastrously mixed results. For every Broken Arrow, there was a Paycheck or a Mission: Impossible...
View ArticleOeuvre: Demme: Enzo Avitabile Music Life
Jonathan Demme’s career was at an interesting point when his music documentary Enzo Avitabile Music Life was released in 2012. Having revived his critical reputation with 2004’s The Manchurian...
View ArticleThe Disaster Artist
A buddy movie about the making of one of the great bad movies, The Disaster Artist is a must-see for fans of the 2003 cult phenomenon, The Room. But even those unfamiliar with or skeptical of Tommy...
View ArticlePsychopaths
An exhaustive pastiche, Mickey Keating’s chiller Psychopaths deserves points for having impressive taste even if it leaves much to be desired in the way of a distinct vision. The film unfolds across a...
View Article24 Hours to Live
Brian Smrz’s 24 Hours to Live is an abysmal action genre exercise that coasts on familiar tropes. Following all the usual beats and clichés to the point where it feels more like a simulation than a...
View ArticleAnother Wolfcop
When choosing to watch a movie like writer/director Lowell Dean’s Another Wolfcop, you know you’re in for a bad movie but you’re hoping it’s the right kind of bad. The expectation may be genre...
View ArticleThe White King
The White King is a dystopian thriller set in a near-future totalitarian society with a tween protagonist. It is also, unfortunately, wracked by all the problems that can befall such a story: the...
View ArticleRediscover: House
Nobuhiko Ôbayashi’s House (or Hausu) was a hit in its native Japan when it was initially released in 1977, but internationally only held cult status until recently. The film had a limited release in...
View ArticleThe Swindlers
The Swindlers is a well-executed caper film in the vein of Soderbergh’s Ocean’s films and the early works of Guy Ritchie. It adopts the same aesthetic of cool criminals ripping off their fellow...
View ArticleDaisy Winters
Daisy Winters is the sort of film that was made much more often in the heady, happy-go-lucky days of the ‘90s. It is cheerful and optimistic, even while tackling serious and depressing issues, and the...
View ArticleOeuvre: Demme: A Master Builder
Adapted from a play by Henrik Ibsen, A Master Builder was first conceived by Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn after their collaboration on what would be director Louis Malle’s final film, the Chekov...
View ArticleDarkest Hour
Annually, it’s easy to get sucked back in to the awards season circus as if it were a cyclically abusive relationship. Despite its seasoned silliness and ingratiating ass-kissing, it’s always nice when...
View ArticleI, Tonya
Early on in I, Tonya, a darkly comedic biopic about Tonya Harding directed by Australian filmmaker Craig Gillespie (Lars and the Real Girl), a character compares the infamous former Olympian to...
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