Destined to go down in history books as the first narrative feature released during Trump’s reign that takes direct aim at the billionaire-game-show-host-turned-POTUS. It also has the distinction of presenting Salma Hayek’s Beatriz with the worst haircut of the actress’s career. Miguel Arteta (Cedar Rapids, Youth in Revolt) is responsible …
Odd and unsatisfying selection of old material and new, nosing around the subject of the Beat phenomenon, but not pinning it down either as to period or locale, to the Beat people's situation then or now, in one place or another. Because the method is evocation rather than explication, it …
A documentary for fans of A Tribe Called Quest. For the rest of us, subtitles of the lyrics would sure help. The influential, Queens-rooted band rose to hip-hop eminence, then fell apart (it has revived for some nostalgia gigs). The music is muscled by ego stress between haughty, preening Q-Tip …
Youth musical, as essentially innocent and wholesome as an old Garland-Rooney vehicle, about a clique of kids from the Bronx whose talents run high and in many directions (break dancer, rapper, graffiti spray-painter). There's a naturalistic texture to the environment, but the action goes by at such an unrelenting blur …
Jacques Audiard's dishevelled remake of Fingers improves on James Toback's all-thumbs rendition. Not hard to do. The unglittering star, Romain Duris, is ugly-handsome in the Belmondo mold, his teeth barely fitting into his mouth; and he manages to make the protagonist — a man torn between a life of petty …
A uranium treasure hunt in very clique-y company (Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre, Robert Morley, Gina Lollobrigida, Jennifer Jones), this cult item is often pulled down from the shelves as an early example of conscious Camping (not to be confused with unconscious Camp), although another Bogart-Huston collaboration, The Maltese Falcon, a …
An anxiety-ridden man who embarks on a surreal Kafkaesque odyssey back home after his mother suddenly dies, confronting his greatest fears along the way. From his darkest fears comes the greatest adventure. Directed by Ari Aster and starring Academy Award winner Joaquin Phoenix.
An anxiety-ridden man who embarks on a surreal Kafkaesque odyssey back home after his mother suddenly dies, confronting his greatest fears along the way. From his darkest fears comes the greatest adventure. Directed by Ari Aster and starring Academy Award winner Joaquin Phoenix.
Peacocky costume piece with an insufferably self-satisfied Fabrice Luchini in the titular role of the 18th-century French wit, playwright, magistrate, periodic political prisoner, duellist, spy, gun-runner, great lover, voice of liberty, and all-around fascinating fellow. The script comes with an intriguing pedigree, traceable to an unproduced and unpublished play by …
Béatrice Romand, an engaging teenager in Eric Rohmer's series of Six Moral Tales (in Claire's Knee, to be exact), has grown up to be an engaging young woman in his ensuing series: Comedies and Proverbs. Which is not to say that the character she plays isn't a typical Rohmer fathead, …
Morally neutered sex comedy, by Bertrand Blier, about a fourteen-year-old girl setting her cap for her thirty-year-old stepfather, a failed jazz pianist. A goodish amount of time is spent trying to make you feel sympathy for the two, to put you in a receptive frame of mind (since one of …
Inverted and cut-rate Ninotchka, built around the talents, most particularly the hoarse adenoidal honk, of Fran Drescher, as a New Yawk cosmetologist recruited by mistake to teach the children of the neo-Stalinist tyrant of mythical Slovetzia. She makes her lines her own: "Could I possibly [gesturing to the bearskin on …
Composer James Hood presents immersive animation, creating a family-friendly 360 journey through worlds real and imagined, from mindblowing particle fields to fantastic environments almost impossible to describe.
A retired NYPD cop and Holocaust survivor travels to Nuremberg to visit his son, years after rejecting him for turning down a promising career in the NYPD and instead marrying a local artist. Flashbacks reveal the father's teenage love for a heroic Polish girl, and his narrow escape from a …
The story of a college kid hooked on drugs as told by a director who’s addicted to closeups. (He has a macro lens on his back.) As the lad’s dad, Steve Carell is aiming at the rafters (and an Oscar), while his young supporting player — and last year’s Academy …