If Hollywood in 2022 was defined by the encouraging commercial success of Top Gun: Maverick, then this year it was doubled by the twinned blockbusters that were Barbie and Oppenheimer in July. Barbie being a massive hit was not a surprise,Read Full Review
Month: December 2023
The Color Purple
There’s a lot of reverence throughout the latest film version of The Color Purple. Firstly, there’s a dedication Alice Walker’s novel, the original text and one of the most beloved pieces of American literature in the TwentiethRead Full Review
The Teachers’ Lounge
In Ilker Catak’s latest feature, The Teachers’ Lounge, a school instructor must find the balance between protecting her students and protecting herself. The task proves harder than you’d think, especially as the school’s byzantine office politicsRead Full Review
Ferrari
In Ferrari, the life-and-death stakes of professional car racing are made pretty clear early on. The smallest things – both and in and out of the driver’s control – can cause unconscionable horror. This is theRead Full Review
Anyone But You
Perhaps it’s that we are so starved for low-stakes, adult romantic comedies that Anyone But You feels like a triumph. A similar thing could be said about No Hard Feelings from earlier this year. Both movies haveRead Full Review
Wonka
Wonka makes it clear pretty early on how much it wants to separate itself from previous versions of the Willy Wonka cinematic universe. The showtune-ification of the character is a deliberate shift from the man weRead Full Review
All of Us Strangers
Few directors today are a better purveyor of human devastation than Andrew Haigh, and yet, his films are never bleak and never give way to sorrow. His movies and TV shows go about it in differentRead Full Review
The Iron Claw
It is perhaps not surprising at all that professional wrestling – an entertainment sport that values the operatic details of melodrama – would lend itself to cinematic recreation. The level of performance, physical and emotional, isRead Full Review
American Fiction
The writing life is a lonely one, contending with the voices in your head more than the people in your life. The protagonist of American Fiction, Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, is a published author whose fallenRead Full Review
The Zone of Interest
The question of depiction in Holocaust films will always be controversial in a way that has nothing really to do with movies. How does one find the balance of evoking the level of monstrosity withoutRead Full Review
The Boy and the Heron
Retirement for legendary artists, especially in the film world, should always be taken with a grain of salt. I don’t think many people really believed that Hiyao Miyazaki was done making films after 2013’s The Wind Rises,Read Full Review
Poor Things
Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos loves playing the role of naughty provocateur. He’s a storyteller unafraid of sexual frankness and the pivotal role it plays in our lives and in our societal foundations, like a descendant of LarsRead Full Review
Fallen Leaves
The droll, darkly comedic worlds of Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismaki are an acquired taste. His working class characters deliver their dialogue in a highly stylized deadpan, cutting gravely serious words with a humorous edge. OftentimesRead Full Review
Monster
Narrative simplicity and character complexity are often the hallmarks of filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda. While he has a gift for drama, it almost never spawns itself out of mechanical plot points. He’s often influenced by realRead Full Review