Review: The Human Cost of War in Deeply Personal For Sama
The Amazon is burning and the polar ice caps are melting. Immigrants seeking a better life are being separated from their children and detained like animals. Wars are being raged […]
Review: Murderous Comedy Ready or Not Makes Bloody Work of Family Games
So much of what makes the new horror comedy Ready or Not so effective is that it doesn’t feel like it takes place in the real world, even when blood […]
Review: The Nightingale Isn’t an Easy Watch; It’s an Essential One
Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale may just be the hardest film of the year to watch. It is brutal and intense, devastating and unflinching. It is also essential, and features perhaps one […]
Review: One Child Nation Reveals the Personal Toll of China’s Devastating Population Policy
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, One Child Nation doesn’t just tackle the seemingly endless and nefarious ways in which the […]
Review: Self-Involved Where’d You Go, Bernadette Squanders a Stacked Cast
There are moments in this adaptation of Maria Semple’s much-loved, quite successful novel Where’d You Go, Bernadette that I absolutely loathed, and part of the reason I felt this way […]
Review: Blinded by the Light Revels in Youth, Dreams and Springsteen
Causing a sizable splash at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, the latest work from filmmaker Gurinder Chadha (Bend It Like Beckham, Bride and Prejudice, Viceroy’s House) is not a film […]
Review: Middle School Mayhem—and Hormones—in an Entertaining Good Boys
Charm will always win out over crass, so imagine combining these two noble traits into one genuinely heartfelt, R-rated comedy about three sixth graders who set out on an epic […]
Review: In an Attempt to Inspire, Brian Banks Is Over-Polished
Far too often, significant true-life stories can get ruined by attempting to dramatize them or make them more “cinematic.” The story of NFL player Brian Banks is certainly an important […]
Review: Just Enough Nostalgia—and Plenty of Pluck—in Dora and the Lost City of Gold
Ten or more years ago, I used to babysit friends’ kids when they couldn’t find a teenager to help them out, and as a result, I saw my fair share […]
Review: Them That Follow‘s Ensemble Cast Carries the Drama of a Reclusive Religious Community
In her first appearance since winning the Oscar for her starring role in The Favourite, where her memorable performance as Queen Anne was only elevated by co-stars Emma Stone and […]
Review: A Life of Solitude, Sustainability is Devastatingly Disrupted in Honeyland
Particularly compelling documentaries are at their most captivating when they expose audiences to worlds, people, customs, traditions, issues and politics foreign from our own, expanding our understanding of the world […]
Review: Touching, Thoughtful The Chambermaid Focuses on One Worthy Story
Like last year’s triumphant Roma, a film by Alfonso Cuarón set in Mexico City, Lila Avilés’s debut feature film, The Chambermaid, follows the life of a servant. In Roma, it was a live-in […]