Aretha Franklin recorded what turned out to be the biggest selling gospel album in history over a two-night period at the New Bethel Baptist Church in January 1972. The goal was admittedly to sell records, not tickets, but Warner Bros. still decided to send Sydney Pollack and four 16mm cameras …
The latest overinflated stretch of chase scenes stitched together to fabricate a feature from Michael Bay runs almost an hour longer than the 80 minute Danish thriller of the same name upon which it was based. Unable to get satisfaction from the VA, war hero Will Sharp (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) …
Why would a quartet of 20-year-old desperados (Evan Peters, Barry Keoghan, Jared Abrahamson, and Blake Jenner) choose to knock over a university’s special collections library? Try $12 million dollars in rare books, with only one old lady (Ann Dowd) guarding them. For every great documentary that’s been spun, there are …
So rattled was James Stern by the thought of anyone in their right mind not voting for Mrs. Clinton that he spent the six months before the election criss-crossing America trying to understand what Donald Trump’s supporters saw in him. Who was Stern’s target audience? Surely Democrats don’t want to …
A broke, disenchanted med student (Katharine Isabelle) answers an ad for a strip club, winds up freelancing as a surgeon for the mob, and quickly becomes a marketable handicrafter skilled in the art of body modification. The Canadian writing, directing team of twisted twins Jen and Sylvia Soska, aided by …
Mathieu Demy's Americano (which he wrote, directed, and stars in) is a loving tribute to his parents, divine cinematic beings Agnes Varda and Jacques Demy. Don't worry, though; even if you can't screen Lola, The Model Shop, and Jacquot de Nantes in advance, Americano stands on its own as an …
A trustworthy storyteller recognizes that the essence of fantasy relies less on a filmmaker’s potential to suspend disbelief and more on their ability to create a plausible universe within which to frame their work. Herschel Greenbaum (Seth Rogen) is a Russian-Jewish immigrant, transplanted to Brooklyn in 1919, where he worked …
Mildred Gillars, aka Axis Sally (Meadow Williams), was the Nazis’ answer to Tokyo Rose. Known throughout the world as the Berlin Babe and Hitler’s Girlfriend, the German-American radio personality was employed by the German Broadcasting Company to circulate Axis propaganda. During her trial in America, she stood second only to …
A purebred underdog with a dream rises from supermarket stock boy to the heights of fame and fortune in this inspirational sports biopic. Before entering the theatre, I couldn’t tell the difference between NFL hurler Kurt Warner (Zachary Levi) and legendary college football Pop Warner. Imagine my delight when the …
When the Lord said, “Judge not, that ye be not judged,” He wasn’t referring to Deb Callahan (Sienna Miller). If ever a character courted chastisement, it’s she. When her daughter turns up missing, Deb embarks on a hellish, decades-long search to find her whereabouts. Like mother, like daughter: both were …
So far, Michael Haneke has specialized in focusing his clinician’s eye on tests of morality that arise during life’s deeply unsettling transgressive moments. A film about losing one’s spouse to Alzheimer's seemed to be a logical progression. Selecting French acting legends Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva to star as the …
Two months behind in the rent, deflector of note Anaïs (Anaïs Demoustier) uses everything from a glass of juice to the smoke alarm that almost beaned her landlady to distract from the subject at hand. Anaïs moves at a whirlwind pace, the camera following her as it would a boxer’s …
A widowed, racist, and all around mucho ungracious landlord (Michael Douglas) begrudgingly falls in love with an equally companionless tenant (Diane Keaton) best known for continually sabotaging her budding career as a chanteuse by working her dead husband’s aneurism into the between-song patter. It begins to curdle early on when …
“Is it better not to live than to live and suffer?” Don’tcha hate it when a character, in this case a scraggly Columbia University professor (Sam Waterston), breaks the ice by spelling out a film’s thesis? Suffer we do as a cast of top name performers (Glenn Close, Kristen Stewart, …
Glamorizing biopic of baby-faced thrill-killer Carlos Robledo Puch (Lorenzo Ferro) whom, after spending more than forty-six years in jail, is the longest-serving prisoner in the history of Argentina. His life in crime began as a “house cat,” a burglar without a gun. You’re heard of a meet cute? Director Luis …