It's been a while since the Southern military academy was taken to task (Jack Garfein's The Strange One, 1957, swims up from memory), and it seems fitting that this should be set in the early Sixties. The time period permits the movie to usher in the James Meredith of the …
Buddy film "inspired by a true story" as well as by Stacy Peralta's documentary of a few years previous, Dogtown and Z-Boys, detailing the exploits of the skateboarding pioneers of Venice, Ca., in the mid-Seventies. (Peralta, one of those pioneers himself, wrote the screenplay for this re-enactment, preserving the immortal …
The promotional campaign was predictably geared to suggest a spinoff of American Graffiti, which does a disservice to this humble, frugal re-creation of Brooklyn, late-1950s. Indulging in much less wing-flapping and crowing, it is not at all guaranteed to appeal to the same crowd. The first feature of Stephen Verona …
The appetizer is an introduction, the dessert is a farewell in this story of an indelible bond forged between a promising young filmmaker and an iconic actress. Starring Jacqueline Bisset and Kelly Blatz.
The big question: Is Nick Nolte's Italian accent enough to ruin the movie, or is it not enough? The big answer: Not enough. And Susan Sarandon and Kathleen Wilhoite as his redheaded ("Murphy-haired") wife and sister-in-law do heroic damage-control. The true tale of a couple's search for a treatment for …
Another dish of gritty naturalism from the Dardenne brothers of Belgium, Jean-Pierre and Luc, zeroing in on an immigration scam in which profit trumps human life. The plot, as noir as they come, is perhaps a tad more complex than the Dardennes are accustomed to or comfortable with. And, in …
Behind-the-scenes glimpse at Lorne Michaels, the man who built the inimitable empire of comedy Saturday Night Live, shaping television and culture for generations. The documentary features exclusive footage, archival treasures, and candid interviews with the show’s most iconic cast members and writers including Tina Fey, Maya Rudolph, John Mulaney, Andy …
Preening action film about a five-man commando team with a delicate moral sense and robust appetite for fun. Idris Elba acts as though he were playing a real character instead of a video-game simulacrum. With Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoë Saldaña, Chris Evans, and Jason Patric; directed by Sylvain White.
A group of punk rockers in 1990s Cuba (known as the Frikis) inject themselves with HIV to gain refuge in government-run sanatoriums. There, in a world meant for isolation, they carve out their own anarchic utopia—an oasis of rock 'n' roll.
TV-movie-of-the-week material: a black crack baby rescued from beside the dumpster where his mother mislaid him, adopted by a white social worker, and then at age two subjected to a custody fight when his rehabilitated birth mother finds out he is not in the landfill after all. ("We take cases …
Released in America as The Young and the Damned -- close enough, and perfectly in the spirit of this lurid vision of Mexico City street life. Buñuel is much tougher and meaner in his treatment of bitter, drunken, and depraved old men than in his treatment of stereotypical Dead End …
Football and Chola live the dream of a dog’s life at the Los Reyes skate park in Santiago, Chile: laying and lolling about, panting and playing and occasionally getting a little attention from the park’s human visitors. No matted mange or scrap-scrounging for these two; just chewing and chasing and …