Category: Reviews

love-lies-bleeding-movie

Love Lies Bleeding

Movies as thoroughly – and earnestly – horny as Love Lies Bleeding don’t get made very often anymore. And much has been written about how they don’t get made very often anymore. I don’t think that directorRead Full Review

Dune-Part-Two-movie

Dune: Part Two

If 2021’s Dune feels more like a commercial for a sequel than its own complete story, it’s because it was just Denis Villenueve’s proof-of-concept, a cinematic argument that the sequel was actually possible. It was onlyRead Full Review

About-Dry-Grasses-movie

About Dry Grasses

About Dry Grasses exists in a paradox. It takes place in a rural Turkish village in Eastern Anatolia, which pummels its working class population with endless, unforgiving snow. The people of the village stumble through man-madeRead Full Review

io-capitano-movie

Io Capitano

In the first twenty minutes of Io capitano, the latest from Italian filmmaker Matteo Garrone, we see two teenaged boys living in West Africa who dream of making the treacherous journey to Europe to pursue a musicRead Full Review

drive-away-dolls-movie

Drive-Away Dolls

Now that we’ve gotten a feature film from each of them on their own, I find myself fascinated by the separation of Joel and Ethan Coen. Joel’s The Tragedy of Macbeth in 2021 was a triumphRead Full Review

the-taste-of-things-movie

The Taste of Things

There is a long tradition of films about food, where the detailed preparation and the effort in the kitchen becomes just as important as the drama outside of it. Kore-eda’s Still Walking, Stanley Tucci and CampbellRead Full Review

how-to-have-sex-movie

How To Have Sex

The provocative title of Molly Manning Walker’s directorial debut, How To Have Sex, might make you think of an exploitation comedy released in the early 2000’s, where the sex lives of high schoolers was fair game for movie studios,Read Full Review

inside-the-yellow-cocoon-shell-movie

Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell

It is undeniable that the cinematic skill in Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell is peerless. It’s camera technique – the brilliance with which it alters the frame within single shots, the grace with which it movesRead Full Review

totem-movie

Tótem

In just over ninety minutes, the latest film from Lila Avilés feels like it contains the entire world. Tótem takes place almost entirely in a single home, during a single day and night, where an extendedRead Full Review

origin-movie

Origin

Ava DuVernay’s decision to make a narrative adaptation of Isabel Wilkerson’s non-fiction book Caste, is a daring choice. It leaves her vulnerable to criticism and many have jumped at the opportunity. It’s an ambitious decision, tryingRead Full Review

society-of-the-snow-movie

Society of the Snow

Society of the Snow probably isn’t helped by the fact that the most consequential plot point of its story – that a group of rugby players resorted to cannibalism in order to survive in theRead Full Review

memory-movie

Memory

On the surface, Michel Franco’s Memory seems to play notes that feel familiar to other trauma-based indie dramas. Our protagonist, Sylvia (played by Jessica Chastain), is a sexual assault survivor and recovering alcoholic. When she firstRead Full Review

The-Color-Purple-movie

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-movie

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-movie

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-movie

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-movie

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-movie

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-movie

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-movie

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-movie

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-movie

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-movie

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-movie

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-movie

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

maestro-movie

Maestro

There’s a moment at about the halfway point of Maestro, the latest film from actor/director Bradley Cooper, where our protagonist, Leonard Bernstein (played resplendently by Cooper), explains to a sycophantic interviewer that he’s actually gravely disappointedRead Full Review

may-december-movie

May December

May December is a film about the creative process, but not in the ways you might expect. Natalie Portman plays a famous actress who agrees to play a real life woman. That real life womanRead Full Review

saltburn-movie

Saltburn

It’s obvious that Emerald Fennell strives to be considered amongst cinema’s greatest provocateurs, yearns to rank amongst the Lars von Triers and Catherine Breillats of the world. Her taste for evocative imagery hints at a talentedRead Full Review

Perfect-Days-movie

Perfect Days

If happiness is measured by our reality divided by our expectations, then being content should be as simple as following that equation. This seems to be the case for Himayama, the protagonist of Perfect Days, the latest filmRead Full Review

nyad-movie

Nyad

What you see in Nyad – a film that spends most of its time in the vast ocean of the Florida Straights – is the difficulty of film adaptation. The story of Diana Nyad is compellingRead Full Review

The-Delinquents-movie

The Delinquents

If you’ve ever worked a day in your life, Rodrigo Moreno’s The Delinquents will pummel you with its stark views on the entrapment that is Life Under Capitalism. At over three hours, the film concerns itselfRead Full Review

the-killer-movie

The Killer

The Killer is an actively fatigued film that seems to carry the burden of existing with every scene. It’s the latest film from David Fincher, the great American master who’s found a new creative homeRead Full Review

the-holdovers-movie

The Holdovers

It’s been nineteen years since Alexander Payne and Paul Giamatti collaborated on Sideways, a movie that felt like a minor key triumph upon its release, though it seems to be mostly forgotten these days. I can’tRead Full Review

priscilla

Priscilla

For all those (like me) who found Baz Luhrman’s Elvis to be grossly overcooked, may I offer an alternative: Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla. It would be difficult to find a filmmaker whose style is more opposed toRead Full Review

killers-of-the-flower-moon-movie

Killers of the Flower Moon

David Grann’s 2017 book Killers of the Flower Moon is a chilling piece of true crime literature. A good amount of it is a thrilling FBI procedural, but the emotional core of it is Molly BurkhartRead Full Review

the-burial-movie

The Burial

As a performer, Jamie Foxx seems almost unfair. There are plenty of actors with skill for both comedy and drama, but few make it look as effortless as Foxx, who can shift between both with greatRead Full Review

anatomy-of-a-fall-movie

Anatomy of a Fall

In the opening sequence of Anatomy of a Fall, our protagonist – a successful German author named Sandra Voyter – is the subject of an interview, but she seems much more interested in her interviewer thanRead Full Review

the-royal-hotel-movie

The Royal Hotel

Neither of Kitty Green’s first two narrative features are particularly violent but both are primed with the threat of it. The haunting menace of angry, entitled men is the dangerous weapon swinging precariously above the heads ofRead Full Review

Fair-Play-movie

Fair Play

There’s no way to say this without sounding derogatory: Fair Play feels a lot like television. That statement is more a reflection on the resources with which television drama is gifted than about Chloe Domont’s debutRead Full Review

no-one-will-save-you-movie

No One Will Save You

Regardless of what you may think of No One Will Save You (I think it’s not very good), it can’t be argued that it deserves its fate of being sent straight to Hulu, bypassing a theatricalRead Full Review

el-conde-movie

El Conde

The Twentieth Century has cursed many nations with their fair share of ghosts. Few historical figures of that time escaped without a fair share of blood on their hands. Some have had the benefit of winningRead Full Review

dumb-money-movie

Dumb Money

One of the many things I remember about living in the depths of the pandemic in 2020, is the adamance with which people ensured that they would NEVER want to watch a film that would take placeRead Full Review

cassandro-movie

Cassandro

Gael García Bernal is one of the few performers in movies today who is truly peerless. The Mexican actor has been working consistently for over two decades both in and out of Hollywood. His boyish goodRead Full Review

bottoms-movie

Bottoms

The trailer and main poster for Bottoms positions it as such: “From the producers of Pitch Perfect and Cocaine Bear“. Quite the Venn diagram. Putting aside the fact that neither of those two films are particularly good, oneRead Full Review

theater-camp-movie

Theater Camp

Theater Camp chooses to frame itself as a fake documentary. I stress this as a choice because as you watch you really don’t see any actual benefit to that choice. It seems like it wouldRead Full Review

the-eternal-memory-movie

The Eternal Memory

The Alzheimer’s Drama has become something of a trope in movies in the last twenty years. The affliction is an easy application for melodrama, and is often exploited for maximum pathos in ways that areRead Full Review

passages-movie

Passages

Ira Sachs’s rich filmography is filled with stories that find high drama within everyday interactions and conversations that spark more with what’s unsaid than what’s said. His films Love is Strange and Little Men are both aboutRead Full Review

barbie-movie

Barbie

Let’s talk about ‘Barbenheimer’, a genuinely organic phenomenon that produced one of the greatest box office weekends in Hollywood history. In an industry that has turned adversarial opening weekend competition into a standard, the ideaRead Full Review

oppenheimer-movie

Oppenheimer

One of the appeals of Christopher Nolan is the way he embraces genre in ways that are enriching but never patronizing. His approaches to noir (Following, Memento) or science fiction (Inception, Interstellar) or war films (Dunkirk) willRead Full Review