Review: Martin Wilson’s ‘Great White’
“‘Great White’ may not be a groundbreaking or unique film, but it’s made with respect, and that deserves to be reciprocated.”
Review: Adam Ethan Crow’s ‘Lair’
“‘Lair’ succeeds with its female-led possession story but fails with the flat adjacent flat subplot.”
Review: Mia Hansen-Løve’s ‘Bergman Island’
“The Fårö setting in ‘Bergman Island’ provides Hansen-Løve with a treasure chest of opportunities to indulge and explore cinephilia, reflexivity, homage and intertext, but the potential autobiographical interpretations are equally enticing.”
Review: David Verbeek’s ‘Dead & Beautiful’
“With ‘Dead & Beautiful,’ Verbeek foreshadows the inevitable clash between the progressive leaders of tomorrow and conservative vampires who seek blood. As new generations of wealth emerge, will the enlightened prioritize reality over their personas?”
Review: Wes Anderson’s ‘The French Dispatch’
“‘Like the very best of Wes Anderson, ‘The French Dispatch’ is large and contains multitudes.”
Review: Edgar Wright’s ‘Last Night in Soho’
“The multifaceted, nuanced quality of music is vital to ‘Last Night in Soho,’ in which people aren’t so easily defined.”
The Spice Must Flow – Review: Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Dune’
“Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Dune: Part One’ is a worthy addition to the collection, besting the Lynch film in certain ways but still flummoxed and frustrated by the source material’s conversation-heavy downside.”
London Film Festival Review: Joanna Hogg’s ‘The Souvenir Part II’
“Like its predecessor, ‘The Souvenir Part II’ is defined by its open spaces; the silences in conversation, the gap between ‘action’ and ‘cut,’ the clouds between the memory of how something happened, and the reality of it.”
Review: David Gordon Green’s ‘Halloween Kills’
“‘Halloween Kills’ may not be to everybody’s tastes, but there’s a reason for that ‘kills’ in the title, beyond attention-grabbing marketing. The word refers not just to Michael himself but the rot at the core of Haddonfield…”
Review: Ridley Scott’s ‘The Last Duel’
“The ‘cinematic’ moviegoing experience is gradually taking shape once more, not just the notion of spectacle, but stimulation of the mind and conscience.”
Review: Maureen Bharoocha’s ‘Golden Arm’
“Holland and Sodaro are so effortlessly good together, their characters evoking the kind of visual contrast unforgettably rendered by Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy…”
Review: Banjong Pisanthanakun’s ‘The Medium’
“‘The Medium’ is arguably the horror movie of the year, one that should be seen on the biggest screen possible.”
London Film Festival Review: Sean Baker’s ‘Red Rocket’
“‘Red Rocket’ is Baker’s strongest work to date, a film much smarter (and far funnier) than its provocative synopsis would suggest.”
London Film Festival Review: Pablo Larraín’s ‘Spencer’
“There is a general sense of otherworldliness that feels enrapturing in ‘Spencer,’ even if Larraín stumbles while addressing the heavier themes.”
Review: Alan Taylor’s ‘The Many Saints of Newark’
“Despite a variety of shortcomings that encompass eye-rolling fan-service lollipops and unresolved narrative threads, there is much to savor in ‘The Many Saints of Newark.'”
Review: ‘V/H/S/94’
“‘V/H/S/94’ is a thoroughly decent installment despite its relatively slight nature. It’s a film which invites the audience to have a lot of fun but keeps an air of spooky credibility intact…”
Review: Ting Poo and Leo Scott’s ‘Val’
“Kilmer’s personal observations and insights are always engaging in ‘Val’ and occasionally yield details and particulars that allow viewers to peek behind the curtain of fame.”
Review: Clint Eastwood’s ‘Cry Macho’
“While ‘Cry Macho’ succeeds with the set-up character scenes, it fails with its overall execution.”
TIFF Review: Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s ‘Earwig’
“The magic of Hadzihalilovic’s ‘Earwig’ comes in the form of its suggestion that viewers abandon their expectations and preconceptions about what cinema should be and what a story can be.”
Review: Soleil Moon Frye’s ‘Kid 90’
“‘Kid 90’ is a story that could have used more unguarded introspection.”