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3.5/4
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Past Lives
(2023)
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Kent Turner
|
Song and her first-rate cast take the “still waters run deep” understated approach. The result is at once straightforward and old-fashioned, yet contemporary. In doing so, Song has single-handedly reenergized a genre.
Posted Jun 02, 2023
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3/4
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BlackBerry
(2023)
|
Rania Richardson
|
BLACKBERRY is a humorous tale of the men behind the world’s first smartphone-- and its trajectory from breathtaking to cataclysmic.
Posted May 12, 2023
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3.5/4
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R.M.N.
(2022)
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Kent Turner
|
In Cristian Mungiu’s scalding "R.M.N.," a 15-minute uninterrupted take is like watching a tennis match, with the focus volleying across multiple directions during a heated, raucous community meeting in a Romanian town without pity.
Posted Apr 28, 2023
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2/4
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Chevalier
(2022)
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Kent Turner
|
When the film’s focus shifts from the stage and to the turbulent turn of events of his life, it succumbs to soap opera antics.
Posted Apr 21, 2023
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3/4
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Little Richard: I Am Everything
(2023)
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Kent Turner
|
Smoothly entertaining and fast-paced, Lisa Cortés’s film thrives on her quotable and boisterous subject.
Posted Apr 21, 2023
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2.5/4
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Beau Is Afraid
(2023)
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Kent Turner
|
Like a drug cocktail that the heavily medicated Beau might take, the movie energizes but ultimately enervates.
Posted Apr 14, 2023
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3.5/4
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Joyland
(2022)
|
Kent Turner
|
Expansive and novelistic.
Posted Apr 12, 2023
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3/4
|
Nam June Paik: Moon is the Oldest TV
(2023)
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Kent Turner
|
The Korean-born artist Nam June Paik has been described as the “foremost video artist in the world” and “the father of video art.” Appropriately, filmmaker Amanda Kim’s documentary tribute to Paik is visually vibrant.
Posted Mar 23, 2023
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3/4
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Passages
(2023)
|
Kent Turner
|
In a change of pace for the filmmaker, this is his horniest movie, where artistic temperament merges with the erogenous zone.
Posted Feb 22, 2023
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3/4
|
Victim/Suspect
(2023)
|
Kent Turner
|
[A] powerful, hard-hitting investigative documentary.
Posted Feb 21, 2023
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3/4
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Fair Play
(2023)
|
Kent Turner
|
A film star is born and another reinvented in debut director Chloe Domont’s sleek drama of a glamorous couple succumbing to backstabbing and brutal belittling.
Posted Feb 04, 2023
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2.5/4
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Infinity Pool
(2023)
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Kent Turner
|
"Infinity Pool" offers a prime example of an actor who, upon first appearing on screen, changes the room temperature considerably, recharges the narrative, and practically takes over the movie. Mia Goth makes an unabashed star turn.
Posted Feb 04, 2023
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2/4
|
Theater Camp
(2023)
|
Kent Turner
|
Obviously improvised by its adult cast members to the point of repetition, the flabby film rambles on, like an uninspired "Saturday Night Live" sketch.
Posted Feb 03, 2023
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3.5/4
|
Pianoforte
(2023)
|
Kent Turner
|
Of all of the documentaries I saw at Sundance, this was the most tightly and sprightly edited, and that recognition would extend across all films, including the features.
Posted Feb 03, 2023
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2/4
|
Babylon
(2022)
|
Kent Turner
|
It’s as if this re-creation of 1920s Hollywood has been feverishly whipped up by a precocious 13-year-old boy with a dirty mind and a generous allowance.
Posted Dec 23, 2022
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4/4
|
Playground
(2021)
|
Kent Turner
|
This may be the most stress-inducing, heartbreaking movie of 2022, and it’s only 72-minutes long.
Posted Dec 20, 2022
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4/4
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EO
(2022)
|
Kent Turner
|
Now at age 84, [Skolimowski] has uncharacteristically whipped up a fanciful, free-flowing fable as spry and energetic as any movie in 2022.
Posted Dec 20, 2022
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3.5/4
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Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths
(2022)
|
Kent Turner
|
Iñárritu turns a self-referential, introspective autofiction psychic trip into a fun house of warped anamorphic imagery.
Posted Dec 20, 2022
|
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2/4
|
The Whale
(2022)
|
Kent Turner
|
The director leaves viewers little room not to be reminded of what makeup artists can do in their craft.
Posted Dec 10, 2022
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4/4
|
One Fine Morning
(2022)
|
Rania Richardson
|
Understated and deceptively breezy, Mia Hansen-Løve’s ONE FINE MORNING, starring Léa Seydoux, accumulates nuanced moments that add up to a subtly powerful, satisfying work.
Posted Dec 09, 2022
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3/4
|
Queen of the Deuce
(2022)
|
Kent Turner
|
Valerie Kontakos’s beguiling "Queen of the Deuce" takes us back to the Times Square of the 1970s, with rising crime, inflation, and a porn theater on every block.
Posted Nov 28, 2022
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3/4
|
Casa Susanna
(2022)
|
Kent Turner
|
"Casa Susanna" is a must-see documentary regarding transgender portrayals, along with "Disclosure" and "Born to Be."
Posted Nov 24, 2022
|
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3/4
|
1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture
(2022)
|
Kent Turner
|
Director Sharon “Rocky” Roggio delves into the fascinating work of etymology.
Posted Nov 24, 2022
|
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3/4
|
EO
(2022)
|
Rania Richardson
|
Jerzy Skolimowski's EO depicts the turbulent life of a spirited equine.
Posted Nov 18, 2022
|
|
3/4
|
The Fabelmans
(2022)
|
Kent Turner
|
Amicable, eminently entertaining
Posted Nov 11, 2022
|
|
3/4
|
Is That Black Enough for You?!?
(2022)
|
Kent Turner
|
Loaded with films to add to your watch list or revisit.
Posted Nov 04, 2022
|
|
2/4
|
Armageddon Time
(2022)
|
Kent Turner
|
At times, the movie feels like watching a school play at a well-funded middle school.
Posted Oct 28, 2022
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3.5/4
|
The Banshees of Inisherin
(2022)
|
Kent Turner
|
The most well-crafted, all-around accomplished entry to the awards season so far. Despite the dreariness of the islanders’ lives and the violence embedded into the plot, it is never less than exuberant.
Posted Oct 22, 2022
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3/4
|
All That Breathes
(2022)
|
Rania Richardson
|
ALL THAT BREATHES is a nature documentary that finds beauty within the debris of New Delhi, India, as two brothers rescue injured black kites and ponder the interconnectedness of existence.
Posted Oct 21, 2022
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2.5/4
|
The Inspection
(2022)
|
Kent Turner
|
Although Bratton’s semi-autobiographical movie is conventionally told, its queer point of view, as well as its shifting tones, nevertheless enhanced the [New York Film Festival]’s Main Slate lineup.
Posted Oct 18, 2022
|
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2/4
|
Stars at Noon
(2022)
|
Kent Turner
|
Wobbly, sometimes mesmerizing, but meandering.
Posted Oct 13, 2022
|
|
|
Till
(2022)
|
Kent Turner
|
This restrained biopic is one of the most thoughtful to come out of Hollywood in recent years.
Posted Oct 12, 2022
|
|
2.5/4
|
Triangle of Sadness
(2022)
|
Kent Turner
|
What holds the wild and winding narrative together is the uniformly excellent acting by the entire ensemble.
Posted Oct 06, 2022
|
|
|
Other People's Children
(2022)
|
Kent Turner
|
The sweet and tart tone is sober and clear-eyed, and the film becomes stronger for not resorting to easy resolutions.
Posted Sep 28, 2022
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3.5/4
|
The Origin of Evil
(2022)
|
Kent Turner
|
[Director] Marnier channels the spirit of Claude Chabrol’s withering knock-downs of the bourgeoisie, layered with the plot curves of a Hitchcockian riddle.
Posted Sep 28, 2022
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3.5/4
|
Causeway
(2022)
|
Kent Turner
|
[Jennifer Lawrence's] best film in years.
Posted Sep 28, 2022
|
|
3.5/4
|
The Wonder
(2022)
|
Kent Turner
|
The team behind "The Wonder" spins a sinuous narrative of many colors. It’s easily one of the classiest films that Netflix has distributed.
Posted Sep 28, 2022
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|
2.5/4
|
My Policeman
(2022)
|
Kent Turner
|
Despite the overall unevenness, the script retains the bones of a compelling story of betrayal.
Posted Sep 28, 2022
|
|
3/4
|
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
(2022)
|
Kent Turner
|
It is among the strongest films about the 1980s New York art scene, especially for its expansive outlook.
Posted Sep 28, 2022
|
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4/4
|
Charcoal
(2022)
|
Kent Turner
|
The well-calibrated droll and dark satire has a life force that courses in serpentine ways that recall Bong Joon-ho’s "Parasite."
Posted Sep 28, 2022
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4/5
|
Nina Wu
(2019)
|
Phil Guie
|
The film manages never to strain credibility, mostly due to how well it establishes Nina’s sense of isolation while parceling out salient details.
Posted Sep 25, 2022
|
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4/5
|
Dead Pigs
(2018)
|
Phil Guie
|
[Doesn't have] a plot to propel it forward so much as principals who cross paths, clash, and tug the narrative this way and that. But at least they’re lively and compelling.
Posted Sep 25, 2022
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4/5
|
Black Holes: The Edge of All We Know
(2020)
|
Phil Guie
|
Though the film is full of jargon that may fly over viewers’ heads, it remains accessible and easy to follow, thanks to how the filmmakers and subjects eschew explaining complicated mathematical formulas or scientific theories.
Posted Sep 25, 2022
|
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4/5
|
Karmalink
(2021)
|
Phil Guie
|
Karmalink’s strongest assets are the visuals and chemistry between the two adventurous kids... The main plot that emerges, however, threatens to become a little too esoteric for its own good.
Posted Sep 25, 2022
|
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4/5
|
Accepted
(2021)
|
Phil Guie
|
We definitely get a sense of how tenuous college dreams are for teens whose parents never went through the process themselves.
Posted Sep 25, 2022
|
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4.5/5
|
Free Chol Soo Lee
(2022)
|
Phil Guie
|
The filmmakers never lose sight of the importance of the mass mobilization of ordinary Asian Americans. In the archived footage, the numbers of protestors increased over time, as well as their passion.
Posted Sep 25, 2022
|
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4/5
|
Three Thousand Years of Longing
(2022)
|
Phil Guie
|
[The] extensive conversational scenes between the pair help them to reach a happy median between the rational and magical, the mind and heart, when it comes to the prospect of having wishes fulfilled.
Posted Sep 25, 2022
|
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3/4
|
2nd Chance
(2022)
|
Kent Turner
|
An absorbing, cringey, and multidimensional look at a self-made entrepreneur.
Posted Jun 24, 2022
|
|
3/4
|
Nothing Lasts Forever
(2022)
|
Kent Turner
|
The tart-tongued talking heads, especially designer Aja Raden (“Everything could be faked”), take no prisoners.
Posted Jun 24, 2022
|
|
2.5/4
|
The Unknown Country
(2022)
|
Kent Turner
|
A lyrical and languid road trip.
Posted Jun 24, 2022
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