“‘Phantom Thread’ is for anyone who has ever been hungry, for anyone who has ever been in love. Most of all, it’s for those people who know that love and hunger are, at their most acutely expressed, one and the same.”
“The side trips in ‘A Forbidden Orange’ are more tantalizing than the sights on the main highway.”
“Taken as a whole, ‘Too Old to Die Young’ is a summative statement on genre, aesthetics and the crumbling American psyche, delivered with a fury sublimated in neon glow. It is a major work of art.”
“The future appears bleak for the telenovela characters of ‘The Wandering Soap Opera,’ but at least they have accessible entertainment options to distract them from all the normalized chaos.”
“Alice’s imaginative genre-mashup works in fits and starts, but there is no question about the quality of lead Keke Palmer’s smooth Pam Grier-inspired performance, even if she inhabits a universe that never fully comes together for viewers.”
“What is so strange about the New Hollywood renaissance of the 70s is that it took place at a time of acute crisis for the business. It was a signal of the industry’s weakness that these cracks in the veneer were not only permitted but encouraged…”
“Singh understands the power of suggestion and how a simple turn of the head can communicate what a character might struggle to articulate.”
Mylissa Fitzsimmons Interview: Greg Carlson and the filmmaker discuss movie collecting and ‘Everything in the End.’
‘Plan 9 from Outer Space’ Interview: Andrew Wyatt discusses the 1957 Ed Wood movie with author Katharine Coldiron.
“Denis drenches every scene in ‘Fire’ with such a sultry sadness; the film stays captivating even as a drastic turn never seems to arrive.”
“Tomlinson doesn’t hit the trendy talking points of so many comedians her age. Instead, she figuratively peels a rotten orange in ‘Look at You’ and asks the audience what they see. The damage is evident, and yet there’s still beauty in the bright color that remains.”
“‘Calendar Girl’ is charming but meandering, a film torn between being a historical documentary and a character study that never ends up successfully being either…”
“The end results of ‘The Batman,’ while acceptable, are insufficiently satisfying, largely because the gritty realism overtakes the story itself.”
“‘Vinyl Nation’ accentuates the positive, but the documentary can also be commended for at least raising questions about industry downsides to the record boom.”
“In ‘Nitram,’ even the simplest domestic scenes inside the Bryant family home seem to have had the light and life sucked from them. And even in the film’s gentlest moments, Kurzel never lets the audience forget the film’s hopeless destination.”
“Black Country, New Road’s ‘Ants from Up There’ feels like a landmark moment in contemporary British alternative rock music.”
The Art of the Score #3: Blake Howard on Steven Soderbergh’s ‘Logan Lucky’
“‘The Long Walk,’ the latest from Mattie Do — Laos’ first and, so far, only female director — understands that for time travel to make sense, all one has to do is present it as is. For Do, it’s a feeling more than a fact.”
“Throughout ‘Fresh,’ Cave shows a sophisticated command of the screw-turning suspense in the material and the milieu.”
“The same way our minds shift under the influence of drugs, so too do they shift under the influence of new information, new truths. The higher the walls, the taller the ladders people will build to overcome them.”
