In a perfect world, Jenny Slate would be America’s undisputed sweetheart. With her lopsided smile and quixotic lunges at happiness that strew confusion in the wake of good intentions, she is the quintessence of a good person confused by a zeitgeist that provides many options, but few guidelines. Reuniting with her OBVIOUS CHILD director/writer… Read More »
KILLING GROUND
The end of a relationship is always poignant. Be it an impulsive move made by one person that changes the dynamic forever, or a bullet to the head at close range, the finality is a moment is a time of reflection on the past, and a pondering of the future. The solidly made little horror… Read More »
THE LITTLE HOURS
Jeff Baena has taken as his inspiration Bocaccio’s Decameron for his sly gem of a film about female frustration and empowerment, THE LITTLE HOURS. That 14th-century book is full of bawdy tales of people from all stratas of society behaving badly, and so they do in this film set very specifically in 1347. Like the… Read More »
THE HOUSE
If anyone could have saved THE HOUSE, it would have been Amy Poehler and Will Ferrell. Theirs is a deliciously insouciant sense of comedy delivered with deadpan sincerity that can make the most of anything tossed their way. And so it is with THE HOUSE, a raggedly written story with a creaky plot that no… Read More »
THE BIG SICK
You can’t blame Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon for thinking that the story of their romance had the makings of a great movie. Kumail (playing himself), a Pakistani immigrant doing stand-up comedy meets graduate student (in psychology, yet), Emily (doe-eyed but tart Zoe Kazan), when she “whoo hoos” him at one of his shows.… Read More »
THE HERO
Sam Elliot is the definition of laconic. As an actor, he is a man who feels deeply, but keeps those emotions in tight check, yet transmitting them to the audience with clarity and an authenticity that is riveting. His only flaw is that he makes it look almost too easy, until the moment when the… Read More »
WAKEFIELD
It was not pre-meditated, Howard Wakefield’s snap decision to remove himself from his family. As he explains to us in the ongoing narration of WAKEFIELD, rather it was an accumulation of minor discontents culminating in a particularly bad commute and a raccoon with a disconcerting assertion of proprietary rights. Thus begins an existential consideration of… Read More »
BAYWATCH
One comes away from BAYWATCH wondering many things, none of them good, one of them why Spongebob Squarepants had to be involved. Based on the television phenomenon that swept the world a few decades back, this cinematic leap is neither faithful to the original, nor is it a loving spoof of same. It fails to… Read More »
MEN WITH GUNS
Is ignorance a sin? John Sayles ponders that in MEN WITH GUNS.
ALIEN: COVENANT
ALIEN COVENANT is a mixed bag. As a horror movie, it is unimpeachable, adding an extra self-refractive layer of pleasure to an audience that knows exactly what is lurking there in the giant deserted spaceship that our intrepid space colonists discover. As a vehicle for advancing the meta-story of the Alien franchise, it is far… Read More »
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