It’s almost tragic that, as I put together my end of the year list for 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic would make yet another vicious comeback into our lives and force us back into the half-livesRead Full Review
Month: December 2021
Memoria
A strange sound in the middle of the night. A woman is awaken. What was it? These are the foundational elements to Memoria, the latest film from the great Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul, the patriarch of SlowRead Full Review
The Tragedy of Macbeth
William Shakespeare’s Macbeth haunts the theater both inside of outside of its productions. A longtime held superstition states that even saying the word “Macbeth” inside a theater can bring on disaster. The play, noted for itsRead Full Review
Don’t Look Up
Within all of the supporting characters in Don’t Look Up (of which there are so, so many), there’s a small window into a version of this movie that could possibly work. Writer-director Adam McKay stridently by-passesRead Full Review
Parallel Mothers
With a reputation for provocation and sensuality, Spanish maestro Pedro Almodóvar has gotten somewhat softer in his later years. His last three films – Julieta, Pain & Glory, and now, Parallel Mothers – are somber and meditative, a moreRead Full Review
The Lost Daughter
The literature of Elena Ferrante is rife with inner passions and women on the edge of emotional collapse. These women are often running away from their troublesome pasts (and physically running away from Naples, Italy),Read Full Review
West Side Story
The new West Side Story opens with a superb crane shot over looking the teardown of apartment buildings in the Upper West Side of Manhattan. A sign states that all this work is making way forRead Full Review
Red Rocket
The protagonist of Red Rocket is so incredibly shameless, a bottomless pit of delusion and self-indulgence. His name is Mikey Davies but he’s better known as Mikey Saber, a multi AVN Award-winning porn star who’s spentRead Full Review
Encanto
Encanto takes place within the lush tropical villages of South America, which pops with vibrant color and diverse wildlife. The latest film for Walt Disney animation (the 60th to come from the studio, as the film’s openingRead Full Review
Benedetta
In Benedetta, a large group of Italian nuns in a Tuscan convent speak to each other in French, and while this is far from the most ridiculous part of the movie, it’s indicative of the movie’sRead Full Review
Flee
Flee transcends the arbitrary constrictions of film genre, using animation and dramatic reenactments to tell a harrowing migrant story. Through interviews with his friend, Amin (at the beginning, the film says that names are changed forRead Full Review