Review: David Gordon Green’s ‘Halloween’
“‘Halloween’ might be funny, but it’s also the nastiest, most violent entry in the series yet.”
Brooklyn Horror Film Festival Review: Daniel Goldhaber and Isa Mazzei’s ‘Cam’
“‘Cam’ is an uncomfortable watch, despite its absolutely dazzling visuals and outstanding production design.”
Keep On Keepin’ On: Review — David Lowery’s ‘The Old Man & the Gun’
“Few actors are truly cross-generational in the manner media outlets make them out to be. Robert Redford, however, has earned this distinction.”
‘First Man’: Damien Chazelle and Ryan Gosling Take a Moonwalk
“‘First Man’ expresses no interest in probing the complexities of space race mythologizing…”
NYFF 2018 Review: Claire Denis’ ‘High Life’
“Denis’ approach resembles that of Pattinson’s performance: pointedly pared down to the bare minimum without fully untethering from recognizable humanity.”
Empathy Through Voyeurism: ‘Bad Times at the El Royale’ Review
“Goddard delineates his film from its influences by focusing almost exclusively on character. Rather than a story filled with twists and turns and manipulation of the audience, ‘Bad Times at the El Royale’ presents each character’s story as a solo vignette, before tying it into the overarching drama.”
NYFF 2018 Review: Paul Dano’s ‘Wildlife’
“The overcorrection for sentimentality does give ‘Wildlife’ a bit of a sterile feel, but the deliberate dissatisfaction that Dano allows to permeate through his debut feature provides a fitting complement to the private misery of the film’s characters.”
Review: Josh Appignanesi’s ‘Female Human Animal’
“It’s a confusing enterprise all around, but — at the very least — ‘Female Human Animal’ is unlike anything else out there, for better or worse.”
TIFF 2018 Review: Peter Farrelly’s ‘Green Book’
“‘Green Book’ becomes more than a comforting story of a friendship that today would actually be perfectly likely when its baseline intersectionality shows its limits.”
TIFF 2018 Review: Felix Van Groeningen’s ‘Beautiful Boy’
“‘Beautiful Boy’ occasionally veers into prevention video territory, but the despair and forced acceptance that David goes through show a side of fatherhood that cinema rarely confronts. Sometimes, your child has to help himself.”
TIFF 2018: Like the Hope of Rain After a Long Summer – A Review of John Butler’s ‘Papi Chulo’
“Apart from fantastic performances from its cast, especially Bomer and Patiño, Papi Chulo’s biggest strength is the subtlety and grace with which it deals with the wide cross-section of issues it touches upon.”
TIFF 2018 Review: Alfonso Cuarón’s ‘Roma’
“Anchored by a deeply sympathetic performance from Aparicio, ‘Roma’ is an empathetic, sentimental, stirring delight.”
TIFF 2018 Review: Neil Jordan’s ‘Greta’
“Greta’s biggest asset is that it’s a film that relishes in its own absurdity.”
TIFF 2018 Review: Jonah Hill’s ‘Mid90s’
“The influence of Larry Clark’s 1995 cult film ‘Kids’ may be all over ‘Mid90s,’ but Hill has a more tender and perhaps more realistic approach of his young subjects: they are smart enough to know when they’re going too far.”
TIFF 2018: The French Affair – A Review of Louis Garrel’s ‘A Faithful Man’
“Within the power plays of a self-aware love triangle, Garrel examines love, sex and companionship and tries to get to a point where everyone meets and exists in perfect harmony. It’s a tug of war between these three, and the final result is basically a test of which one outlives the others.”
TIFF 2018 Review: Xavier Dolan’s ‘The Death and Life of John F. Donovan’
“For a film revolving around an actor destroyed by a bad reputation, ‘The Death and Life of John F. Donovan’ remains frustratingly vague about the media’s indiscretions that bring John’s downfall.”
TIFF 2018 Review: Steve McQueen’s ‘Widows’
“‘Widows’ offers the thrills and the feelings, the political and the sentimental corruption, the men but also, and especially, the women behind them, who will do anything for love, but won’t do that.”
TIFF 2018 Review: Brady Corbet’s ‘Vox Lux’
“By being so lazy and aggressive with his judgment of pop culture, Corbet ends up making a film that is bland in its anger, annoying in its attacks and ridiculous in its contempt for its characters and audience.”
TIFF 2018 Review: Sara Colangelo’s ‘The Kindergarten Teacher’
“‘The Kindergarten Teacher’ is purposefully not a comfortable watch, but it satisfies in many ways. Not only is its central character an imperfect woman, but she also expresses her palpable rage in a strange and fascinating form of intellectual violence.”
TIFF 2018: Embracing the Oxymoronic – A Review of Jacques Audiard’s ‘The Sisters Brothers’
“Audiard finds the real drama of the film in how the seemingly boundless promise of the land collides with the very real limitations of the human imagination and body.”