Oak Cliff Film Festival Review: Alex Ross Perry’s ‘Golden Exits’
“In ‘Golden Exits,’ the miserable find company in the spaces they inhabit. Nothing is shared; nothing is collective.”
Open Roads: New Italian Cinema 2017 – Andrea De Sica’s ‘Children of the Night’
“De Sica has mentioned ‘The Shining’ and ‘Dead Poets Society’ as influences, and ‘Children of the Night’ is at its best when it favors the former.”
Open Roads: New Italian Cinema 2017 – Roberto Andò’s ‘The Confessions’
“Sleek visuals and cryptic dialogue aren’t enough to save a film that’s essentially a truncated season of ‘House of Cards.'”
Open Roads: New Italian Cinema 2017 – Edoardo De Angelis’ ‘Indivisible’
“‘Indivisible’ is a fantastically imaginative coming-of-age tale, an opera of sweeping creativity and a universal human love story.”
Cannes Film Festival Review: Taylor Sheridan’s ‘Wind River’
“‘Wind River’ is a well crafted, but straightforward, thriller with an interesting setting and social context.”
Cannes Film Festival Review: Roman Polanski’s ‘Based on a True Story’
“The title is, of course, a knowing joke. ‘Based on a True Story’ couldn’t be further from reality.”
Cannes Film Festival Review: Sergei Loznitsa’s ‘A Gentle Creature’
“Sergei Loznitsa goes for absurdist satire, but, unfortunately, the joke’s on him.”
Cannes Film Festival Review: Ben and Joshua Safdie’s ‘Good Time’
“‘Good Time’ plays like little more than a direct-to-video thriller.”
Album Review: Animal Youth ‘Animal’
“There are few things more frustrating to a music critic than wanting desperately to love an album but never quite getting there.”
Cannes Film Festival Review: Noah Baumbach’s ‘The Meyerowitz Stories’
“Like a classic stand-up comedian, Baumbach is far more interested in observation than hot button provocation.”
Cannes Film Festival Review: Sofia Coppola’s ‘The Beguiled’
“‘The Beguiled’ plays out exactly as one might expect and never really stretches beyond its contained premise.”
Cannes Film Festival Review: Kaouther Ben Hania’s ‘Beauty and the Dogs’
“The technical achievement here is considerable, though there is nothing that can match the surprise, and resultant thrill, of watching the opening scene play out.”
Cannes Film Festival Review: Agnès Varda and JR’s ‘Visages, villages’
“Between the enlightened creators, the immensely intimate artwork and the fabulous people they meet, there is never a dull moment in this beautiful piece of cinema.”
Cannes Film Festival Review: Vanessa Redgrave’s ‘Sea Sorrow’
“While ‘Sea Sorrow’ is cinematically stunted, it is clearly made with great passion and belief.”
Review: Azazel Jacobs’ ‘The Lovers’
“According to Jacobs, romantic love is a negative equation wherein passion plus time equals complacency.”
Album Review: Jen Gloeckner ‘VINE’
“Even though Gloeckner recorded ‘VINE’ in her Dubuque, Iowa bedroom, there is nothing bare bones or lo-fi about it; her passion for her art is obvious and impressive.”
Tribeca Film Festival Review: Israel Cárdenas and Laura Amelia Guzmán’s ‘Sambá’
“‘Sambá’ succeeds most when it draws inspiration from its setting and hooks the audiences with hard questions about crime and responsibility.”
Tribeca Film Festival Review: Tim Golden and Ross McDonnell’s ‘ELIÁN’
“It’s a miracle that Golden and McDonnell were able to create such a coherent document out of what appears to be bureaucratic chaos.”
Tribeca Film Festival Review: Guillaume Canet’s ‘Rock’n Roll’
“Canet’s performance seems to come from a place of real insecurity, and the resulting film plays out like an externalized catharsis.”
Tribeca Film Festival Reviews: Men with Guns – ‘Sweet Virginia’ and ‘Hondros’
“What ‘Sweet Virginia’ and ‘Hondros’ have in common is the notion that men with guns aren’t as brave or bloodthirsty as they seem.”