Tag: top-stories
Blood Father | Review
Forgiveness of Blood: Richet Delivers Grimy Gibson in Slice of B-Movie Glory
If you’re looking for any sort of striking originality in French director Jean-Francois...
Florence Foster Jenkins | Review
Florence and the Machine: Frears Lets the Music Speak for Itself in Curio Biopic
In recent years, the quality of output from British director Stephen...
Sun Choke | Review
Choke Up the Sun: Cresciman’s Dubious Deliberation on the Female Psyche
Mentally unstable women with fragile personalities formulate a vibrant subgenre of their own across...
Little Men | Review
Gentrified Agreement: Sachs’ Poignant Examination of a Childhood Friendship
For his sixth feature, Ira Sachs returns to Brooklyn with Little Men, a perceptive study of...
Suicide Squad | Review
Monsters, Inc.: Ayer’s DC Comic Mashup is All Bark and No Bite
Try as he might, director David Ayer’s valiant efforts to counter the onslaught...
Equity | Review
Greed is God: Menon Crafts Terse, Uneven Femme-Centric Wall Street Noir
Meera Menon follows up her 2013 road-trip comedy Farah Goes Bang with a low-fi...
Jason Bourne | Review
Bourne Again Again: Greengrass Returns to Action Franchise with Middling Results
Director Paul Greengrass returns to the Robert Ludlum action franchise he inherited from Doug...
Interview: Anne Fontaine (The Innocents)
I sat down with Anne Fontaine shortly after her latest film, The Innocents (formerly “Agnus Dei”) premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. The increasingly...
Star Trek Beyond | Review
Back to Basics: Lin Takes Another Franchise Where It Has Bravely Gone Before
Director Justin Lin (Fast and Furious installments three, four, five, and six)...
Don’t Think Twice | Review
Funnier People: Birbiglia’s Sincere Dramedy Examines Failure, Success
Comedian Mike Birbiglia’s sophomore directorial effort Don’t Think Twice is a rather melancholy, ambitious rendering of the...
Summertime | Review
An Affair to Remember: Corsini’s Enjoyable, Brightly Hued Period Piece
Catherine Corsini returns with her ninth feature film, Summertime (La belle saison), an early 70s...
Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie | Review
Filth and Wisdom: Saunders and Lumley Can’t Get Back to Where They Started From
This wheel doesn’t so much as explode as it does simply...
Train to Busan | Review
Here Comes the Train Again: Sang-ho’s Live Action Debut Heavy on Tropes
Zombie contagion sweeps over South Korea while a random band of survivors struggle...
The Childhood of a Leader | Review
The Children Are Watching Us: Corbet’s Chilling Directorial Debut Contemplates Familial Fascism
Potent psychological complexity often feels compromised in favor of establishing easy to...
The Whispering Star | 2016 Japan Cuts Film Festival Review
The Human Factor: Sono’s Somber Allusions to the Allegory of the Cave
When one contemplates the continuously expanding filmography of Japanese auteur Sion Sono, hyperbolic...
Ghostbusters | Review
Dose of a Ghost: Feig Delivers Funny, Feminized Franchise Entry
Overshadowed by the ill will of an alarmingly misogynist fanboy culture since its initial inception,...
Equals | Review
Sweet Emotion: Doremus Does Dystopia on Enjoyable, Recognizable Canvas
Emotions cannot be controlled, but they also cannot be allowed to control you. At least, that...
Our Little Sister | Review
Sisters Doing It For Themselves: Kore-eda’s Continued Examination of Polite Familial Discord
Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda returns with Our Little Sister (aka Umimachi Diary), another...
The Legend of Tarzan | Review
Monkey See, Monkey Do: Seditious Subtexts of the White Savior in Latest Tarzan Adaptation
Certain properties are best left alone, allowed to exist in the...
Private Property (1960) | Review
Piece of the Pie: Stevens’ Psychosexual Drama Gets Revamped
The poster tagline for Leslie Stevens’ 1960 directorial debut Private Property says it all, proclaiming the...
Carnage Park | Review
Carnage Knowledge: Keating’s Halfhearted Shot at Grindhouse not a Fine Vintage
For his fourth feature, indie genre director Mickey Keating attempts a vintage crime/horror mash-up...
Microbe and Gasoline | Review #2
Boys of Summer: Gondry Dials Down the Mayhem for Gentle Road Film
If Michel Gondry’s latest film Microbe and Gasoline can potentially be regarded as...
Microbe and Gasoline | Review #1
Whimsy with Measure: Gondry’s Reflection on Youth and Imagination
There are certain expectations that come with a Gondry film; his trademarks have helped to define such...
The Conversation: Top 10 Films Mid-Year Ranking
In an effort to dribble some new blood into conversations regarding the best cinematic bits to reach release in 2016, we’ve opened our top...
Free State of Jones | Review
The Newton Men: Ross Emancipates History Lesson from Obscurity
At a point in time, a dramatic reenactment of a provocative but overlooked American Civil War...
The Neon Demon | Review
Death Walks on High Heels: Refn Delves Daftly into the Los Angeles Fashion Demimonde
To reference John Waters’ definition of beauty, “a face should jolt,...
Right Now, Wrong Then | Review
Two in One: Sang-soo’s Latest Delight Examines Outcomes and Possibilities
Prolific South Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo, who debuts annual films at various festivals every year,...
The Shallows | Review
The Shark Who Came in from the Deep: Collet-Serra’s Shark Attack Sticks to the Basics
There will likely never be a shark attack film as...
The Fundamentals of Caring | Review
Careworn Crucibles: Burnett’s Clichés Prove Reading is Fundamental
Writer and producer Rob Burnett, who has a healthy television resume with contributions such as “Ed” and...
The Conversation: Goodbye to Foreign Language
Nearing the second half of 2016, there’s much yet to be revealed in global cinema, with major platforms in Venice and TIFF likely to...
Finding Dory | Review
Sea Notes: Stanton Revisits Little Lost Fish in the Wide Blue Yonder
To many, 2003’s animated Pixar film Finding Nemo is considered an iconic title,...
Central Intelligence | Review
Little Big Man: Unlikely and Illogical Buddy Comedy Runs on Vestiges of Charm
The usual formula we’re used to seeing in the tireless buddy comedy...
Cosmos | Review
The Fault in Our Stars: Zulawski’s Uncompromised Return a Dark Hearted Farce
Throughout a filmography that’s spanned five decades, including two short films and now,...
The Department Q Trilogy | Review
The continued reverence for the pulpy wave of crime thrillers popularized as Nordic Noir continues with the imported The Department Q Trilogy, a series...
Criterion Collection: Le Amiche | Blu-ray Review
Many forget Michelangelo Antonioni had been directing films for over a decade by the time 1960’s L’avventura was booed at Cannes, eventually solidifying his...
The Conjuring 2 | Review
You Gotta Have Faith: Wan Advances another Franchise with Familiar Jolts
After leaving behind his Insidious franchise and lending his name to the Fast...
From Afar | Review
The Space Between Us: Vigas’ Debut a Somber, Compelling Character Portrait
Venezuelan director Lorenzo Vigas unveils a stellar debut with stark and subversive relationship drama...
Careful What You Wish For | Review
Imitation of Life: Rosenbaum Bastes Noir Tropes in YA Sheen
Director Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum seems dangerously preoccupied with fashioning ill-suited screen personas for pop stars,...
The Fits | Review
Get in Where You Fit In: Holmer’s Impressive Allegory of Assimilation
Although it may feel a bit too allegorical or stylistically esoteric for its own...
Ma Ma | Review
Soap on a Rope: Medem Returns with Malignant Cancer Drama
It’s becoming harder and harder to remember the relevancy of Spanish filmmaker Julio Medem, a...
The Conversation: Cannes 2016 is the Year of the Cannibal
It was a markedly gruesome year on the Croisette in 2016 (including the perplexing awards recipients), with a notable slew of titles playing throughout...
Maren Ade’s Toni Erdmann, Aquarius, Elle & Paterson Top our 2016 Cannes Critics’ Panel
Yesterday's George Miller led jury pronounced Ken Loach's I, Daniel Blake as the best from the 2016 competition of twenty-one films, and they gave...
2016 Cannes Critics’ Panel Day 12: Maren Ade’s Toni Erdmann Leads Palme d’Or Predictions & Personal Palmes
The Cannes Film Festival is getting ready to bestow several awards, including the highest honor. Not surprisingly, the majority of the jury think that Maren Ade's...
2016 Cannes Critics’ Panel Day 11: Paul Verhoeven Brings Loaded “Elle” to the Table
Elle not only sees Paul Verhoeven's long awaited return to the Croisette (his only ever Cannes showing being 1992's Basic Instinct) but it also counts as...
2016 Cannes Critics’ Panel Day 10: Refn Takes Fashionable Approach to “The Neon Demon”
Prior to hitting the Cannes comp with his Best Director prize winning Drive (2011) and the much disliked Only God Forgives (2013), this Danish-American...
The Other Side | Review
Beasts of the Southern Wild: Minervini Continues Fascination with American Rural Dysfunction
One can’t help but recall the refreshing yet uncomfortably toxic memories of Harmony...
2016 Cannes Critics’ Panel Day 10: Sean Penn’s Proposes Cinematic War Zone for “The Last Face”
A well liked actor and personality on the Croisette, he had his first outing as a filmmaker with The Indiana Runner land in the...
The Unknown Girl | 2016 Cannes Film Festival Review
The Guilt Trip: The Dardennes’ Add a Touch of Genre to Collective Guilt
For better or worse, we already know what kind of quiet poignancy...
2016 Cannes Critics’ Panel Day 9: Dolan Comes Out with “It’s the Only the End of the World”
With the exception of what I consider his best film to date, the Venice preemed Tom at the Farm, Xavier Dolan's home away from home...
2016 Cannes Critics’ Panel Day 9: Cristian Mungiu Teaches Masterclass with “Graduation”
Winner of the Palme d'Or in a heavily stacked 2007 field that included The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, No Country for Old Men...
