Casting people of colors in roles that demand they speak in regional accents they don’t have is insulting, but what if – what if – a movie directed by an Indian-American woman (Lena Khan!) cast an Indian-American actor (Danny Pudi!) as a guy from India and thus required him to adopt an Indian accent? I’m not sure … Continue reading
I’m on board for any kind of atmospheric Gothic guignol, so The Limehouse Golem is right in my wheelhouse. Everyone knows that Jack the Ripper was the most prolific serial killer of his day; what this film presupposes is, what if he wasn’t? That’s a campy enough premise to work off of, and if I’m being … Continue reading
I’m of the mind that we’re all animal lovers, even those of us who include animals in our diet, whether in the form of products derived from, say, their milk (like cheese) or in the form of their meat. So it stands to reason that we’re all going to get something from watching Shaul Schwarz … Continue reading
I think we’re going to see a lot of people making movies on iPhones, or I guess I should say a lot more people; it’s not like Sean Baker, the brilliant Sean Baker, he of Tangerine, and Starlet, and Prince of Broadway, is the first filmmaker to think of using a mobile device to shoot a movie, but I doubt … Continue reading
Oh, Top of the Lake: China Girl; I wish I liked you better. The first season of Jane Campion’s SundanceTV series is phenomenal, make no mistake; also make no mistake that she should have left it at one season, assuming that her plan for following it up was always, well, this. Top of the Lake: China Girl … Continue reading
I suspect most will find 1% entertaining enough that my remote TIFF review of the film (so called because I reviewed the film in Boston and not on-location at TIFF) will strike some as maybe a little bit unfair or even a bit pretentious. Well…you’re wrong! It’s neither of these things. If anything, I’m just being … Continue reading
I rather liked Lake Bell’s first go behind the camera, In a World…, so maybe I put higher expectations on her second, I Do…Until I Don’t than I ought to have. I didn’t hate it; I didn’t even dislike it. But it’s a step back, in a sense, from In a World…, less polished, less successful as a narrative, … Continue reading
I think I know a thing or two about South Korean revenge movies, and I think I know a thing or two about South Korean action movies, which means I’m uniquely positioned to write about The Villainess, a South Korean revenge-action movie. It’s pretty solid, if lacking in fight scenes; the quality is there, but the … Continue reading
As a rule, I’m okay with bad things happening to characters in movies, whether they’re supporting types or leads. I’m not really okay with bad things happening to characters in movies for no other reason than to wound the audience, and that’s more or less how Bushwick approaches the delicate matter of sorting out character arcs. It’s … Continue reading
There’s a component of familiarity in Beach Rats, a movie about a young man performing heteronormative masculinity, but the familiarity is muffled by Eliza Hittman’s directing style; she’s one of a kind, and so is her movie, the first she’s made in the last few years after debuting with the superb It Felt Like Love. Beach Rats … Continue reading
If you could have a perfect holographic image of your late lover, whether your husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, or some undefinable fling, stored on a hard drive, and if you could talk to that image whenever you please, and if that image could learn about the person it reflects and become more and more like … Continue reading
Here it is, at long last (that is, if you think six months qualifies as “long”): My review of Janicza Bravo’s excellent debut feature film, Lemon, a chronicle of defective but self-aggrandizing whiteness, starring Bravo’s husband Brett Gelman (also serving here as co-writer; they’re a real team). There are reasons and then some why I like … Continue reading
There’s an internal debate raging in the pop culture center of my brain as to whether Epix’s new show, Get Shorty, is actually as good as I think it is, based on its existence as the second adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s 1990 novel (the first being, of course, 1995’s Get Shorty); I’m still mulling over whether it’s … Continue reading
I missed Columbus at this year’s Independent Film Festival Boston, so of course I was thrilled to catch up with it for its theatrical release. I was even more thrilled to find that it’s lovely, poetic, and just plain old great. At a glance, I expected the film to follow along expected plot lines, but I … Continue reading
I took a trip to Spain back in May, during Independent Film Festival Boston, which is just a cutesy-poo way of saying that I saw The Trip to Spain, Michael Winterbottom’s third entry in his The Trip series, orchestrated with and starring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. As with the other Trip movies, I liked this one. But it … Continue reading
Trust me: I really wanted to love Comrade Detective. I’m fond of most of the people involved, and if I’m naturally inclined to consider the basic conceit of dubbing comic vocal tracks over material that is not at all innately comic, I’m okay with it on the off chance that the people doing it nail the … Continue reading
Sometimes, all it takes to reevaluate your stance on a movie is to start writing about it months after first seeing it, and also rebuking yourself for not fully embracing its greatness when you wrote your stupid halftime list in June. So it goes. I saw Menashe back in May during the 2017 Independent Film Festival … Continue reading
