Sweet, Satisfying and Sex-Positive: ‘Zack and Miri Make a Porno’ at 10
“‘Zack and Miri Make a Porno’ is a lot like a modern ‘When Harry Met Sally,’ for broke 30-somethings rather than wealthy, super-hot business types.”
‘Scrooged’ Is Still the Most Modern ‘Christmas Carol’
“‘Scrooged’ carries on Dickens’ themes and message in a way that speaks the most directly and urgently to its audience, teaching that “the miracle” of giving can happen to all of us, at any time. Provided, of course, we can turn off the TV for just long enough.”
Ballad of Lee Israel: Marielle Heller’s Excellent ‘Can You Ever Forgive Me?’
“‘Can You Ever Forgive Me?’ is simultaneously suspenseful and laidback.”
In Praise of ‘Krampus’: Celebrating the Pinnacle Anti-Christmas Film
“‘Krampus’ is the pinnacle anti-Christmas movie in the way it thrives on the sheer awfulness of the holiday. It is ugly, it is unpleasant, and it is still utterly festive in the fact that it embraces the nature of the season as it has always been.”
Why ‘The Ballad of Buster Scruggs’ Is More Than the Sum of Its Parts
“In a way, the Coens complete the arc of the film, tying it together cohesively, by suggesting that the arc is random, sometimes cruel, and sometimes meaningless.”
‘The Old Man & the Gun’: David Lowery Directs a Robert Redford Victory Lap
“For my money, David Lowery has been as much fun to watch as any filmmaker of his generation.”
Album Review: Neil Hamburger ‘Still Dwelling’
“Yes, Turkington does sing in the same grating timber as his alter ego, but — thanks to a top-notch back-up band — the effect is quite charming.”
Jonah Hill Looks Back at the ‘Mid90s’
“‘Mid90s’ has drawn some comparisons to Harmony Korine (who makes a cameo in Hill’s film) and Larry Clark’s ‘Kids,’ but Hill’s worldview is far less toxic and dangerous than the grimmest territory explored in the 1995 movie.”
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.”
In the Shadow of ‘The Hairy Bird’
“Given what we now know about Weinstein’s welding of harassment, assault and power to control the women in his professional orbit, it’s uncanny that a seemingly frivolous film about a girls boarding school could share such parallels with the #MeToo movement.”
How to Lose Control: Understanding Children and Insecurity with ‘The New Man’
Ella Kemp Interviews ‘The New Man’ Filmmakers/Subjects Devorah Baum and Josh Appignanesi
Eli Roth Replaces Trademark Irreverence with Quiet Reverence for ‘The House with a Clock in Its Walls’
“Ultimately, it seems that the film’s pleasant and inoffensive affect is exactly what Roth intends. The work is unassuming, competently handled and ably colored within its established lines. It aims clearly and unwaveringly to please a young target audience.”
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: 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: 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: 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.”
Review: Joseph Kahn’s ‘Bodied’
“‘Bodied’ is a blisteringly urgent and inescapably topical meditation on race, class and identity; the kind of movie that could only be told with the panache and in-your-face directness of Kahn.”
TIFF 2018: The Never-Ending Ruminations of Olivier Assayas – A Review of ‘Non-Fiction’
“For a film about an eternal conflict, ‘Non-Fiction’ is a strangely calming film. It quietly assures you that while a fight for permanence is natural, the need to change is also equally natural.”
A Matter of Style: Yasujirō Ozu Covers ‘Christopher Robin’
Michael J. Casey Imagines ‘Christopher Robin’ in the Style of Yasujirō Ozu