The Tragedy of Macbeth ***
Cinematic Shakespeare adaptations face a whole mess of unique challenges: comparisons with previous adaptations of the same material; questions of what a cinematic...
American Underdog **
There’s a level on which movies like American Underdog are some of the hardest movies to write about, because while it accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do,...
At the annual meeting of the Utah Film Critics Association, The Power of the Dog took Best Picture honors along with three other awards, leading a wide-ranging list of winners.…
Being the Ricardos **
The oeuvre of Aaron Sorkin will forever be a test of how much his skill with tart dialogue can balance his penchant for taking himself way too seriously. Like last...
All the 1984 films I've seen, from best to worst.
Amadeus This Is Spinal Tap Blood Simple Once Upon a Time in America The Killing Fields Love Streams The Wannsee Conference Ghostbusters...
TENDER MERCIES (Bruce Beresford, USA, 1983, 9)
Robert Duvall was in person to introduce the film (and his THE APOSTLE, which I didn’t see) at the 2006 Virginia Film Festival. After entering the...
Benedetta ***
See feature review. Available Dec. 3 in theaters and via VOD. (NR)
Encounter ***
An Invasion of the Body Snatchers premise gets an interesting twist in a psychological...
BELFAST (Kenneth Branagh, Britain, 2021) 6
I am about five years younger than Kenneth Branagh and was raised less than 150 miles from Belfast in a city divided (if less vigorously and violently) between...
THE POWER OF THE DOG (Jane Campion, USA, 2021, 4)
Jonny Greenwood’s sharp and stabbing score is great, the vistas are both gorgeous and foreboding, the piano-banjo duet scene has 10 Skandies points...
NOMADLAND (Chloe Zhao, USA, 2020) 3
... and it’d’ve been even lower were it not for Strathairn, Swanky, the guy at the end whose son killed himself and other small character bits. My inner Marxist...
Ghostbusters: Afterlife **
I wish I could understand the thought process that emerged when somebody said “Let’s make another Ghostbusters movie,” and somebody then said, “Okay …...
THE DOG WHO WOULDN’T BE QUIET (Ana Katz, Argentina, 2021) 8 V
Alfred Hitchcock said he couldn’t work with Ingrid Bergman after the late-1940s because she only wanted grand roles like Joan of Arc...
THE WORLD TO COME (Mona Fastvold, USA, 2021) 7 V
The Nicene Creed closes with “[I believe in] … the life of the world to come,” which is what gives THE WORLD TO COME its spine-tingling, seal-the-deal...
JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH (Shaka King, USA, 2021) 8 V
When a film displays the Official Great-Man Biopic Seal (real-life footage over the credits), my reflex is to distrust it as hagiography. But...
Belfast ***
See feature review. Available Nov. 12 in theaters. (PG-13)
Clifford the Big Red Dog **1/2
It’s unfortunate when certain genres—like, say, live-action movie versions...
AT THE READY (Maisie Crow, USA, 2021) 3 V
For the second straight year, a Sundance documentary stars Texas high-school students and politics. But while 2020’s BOYS STATE was a suspenseful movie about...
All the 1983 films I've seen, from best to worst.
The Right Stuff A Christmas Story Pauline at the Beach The King of Comedy Tender Mercies Sans Soleil Trading Places Nostalgia Sprout...
PAULINE AT THE BEACH (Eric Rohmer, France, 1983, 9)
I'd probably pick PAULINE AT THE BEACH as The Eric Rohmer Film Prototype -- Romantic hexagon between 3 gorgeous French bourgeoise women (and 3 not-so-good-looking...
THE RIGHT STUFF (Phillip Kaufman, USA, 1983) 10 R
I watched this with Ben Domenech at AFI Silver and later wrote this lengthy essay for his site The Federalist about how THE RIGHT STUFF united the...
PASSING (Rebecca Hall, USA, 2021) 8 V
They’re childhood friends who accidentally meet in Jazz Age New York, but only one recognizes the other … until she laughs. Now Irene (Tessa Thompson) remembers...
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