‘The Testament of Ann Lee’ Review: Amanda Seyfried is Mother (Ann) in Mona Fastvold’s Miraculous Musical Drama [A]
Religious dramas are not really my cup of tea, to use a British expression. I’m a big fan of Ingmar Bergman, but I’m not really... Read More
Film Reviews
‘The Housemaid’ Review: Going From Booktok to Big Screen Saps Thriller of Sexiness and Fun [D]
There was a time when mid-budget, mid-grade thrillers kept movie theaters in business, before the multiplexes were taken over by an uneven mix of big... Read More
‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ Review: Feliz Na’vi Dads [B+]
Three years ago, we left the Sully family at a devastating low point. In an attempt to protect his family, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) brought... Read More
Retrospective: Worst Picture/Best Picture – ‘Basic Instinct 2’ and ‘The Departed’ (2006)
“By the way, Stone left five minutes before the movie began and people in the theater began throwing things at the screen during a particularly... Read More
‘Ella McCay’ Review: James L. Brooks Aims to Mine a Nostalgic Relic but Comes Up With Something Mildly Dated [B-]
Very quickly into its runtime, Ella McCay establishes itself as a fantasy. After the narrator (Julie Kavner) introduces herself with “I’m the narrator” (there’s no... Read More
‘Marty Supreme’ Review: It’s One Paddle After Another For Timothée Chalamet in Josh Safdie’s Instant New York Classic [A-]
It’s 1952 in New York City, and Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet) is stuck on the Lower East Side, fitting a customer for shoes. Being promoted... Read More
‘Wake Up Dead Man’ Review: Rian Johnson’s Latest Puzzlebox Takes Benoit Blanc to Church on an Unholy Whodunit [A-]
The latest whodunit from writer-director Rian Johnson, Wake Up Dead Man, starts with a confession; not one of guilt or sin, but of absolute truth. Written... Read More
‘The Secret Agent’ Review: Kleber Mendonça Filho Returns with a Timely Tale of Brazilian Corruption and Persecution [A-]
One year after over-performing at the Oscars with the sleeper hit I’m Still Here, Brazil is poised to potentially do it again with another film analyzing... Read More
‘Hamnet’ Review: Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal Will Break Your Heart in Chloé Zhao’s Timeless Tale of Profound Loss and Boundless Love [A]
All that lives must die,/Passing through nature to eternity.” -Hamlet Act One, Scene 2 Early in Chloé Zhao’s staggering Shakespearean fairytale, Hamnet, Agnes (Jessie Buckley) asks... Read More
‘Zootopia 2’ Review: The Fast and the Furriest [B-]
During our precarious social moment in America—where wealth inequality continues to skyrocket, federal police forces are taking to the streets to strip vulnerable people of... Read More
Interview: Cinematographer Darius Khondji on Shooting on Film and Finding the Light and the Darkness of ‘Marty Supreme’ 
Writer/Director Charlie Polinger Tackles Teenage Boy Body Horror in his Debut Feature ‘The Plague’ [VIDEO INTERVIEW] 
‘The Testament of Ann Lee’ Review: Amanda Seyfried is Mother (Ann) in Mona Fastvold’s Miraculous Musical Drama [A] 
With ‘Song Sung Blue,’ Craig Brewer Pays Tribute to Kate Hudson and Hugh Jackman, Joy Amongst Sadness, and the Creation of Art [VIDEO INTERVIEW]