Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
The 2020 Sundance Film Festival concluded this weekend with Festival jurors bestowing prizes upon 28 of the 128 films shown during the ten-day Fest. All the winners can be found here, but, as I did last year, below I present my own highlights — good and bad — and let you know which films you should SEE or SKIP, should any of these be widely released at some point.
Continue reading “Film Feature: Highs and Lows from the 2020 Sundance Film Festival”
Top 10 lists are notoriously subjective, of course; one fan’s “best” can easily be another’s “worst.” To be included on my Top 10 Films of the Year list, a film has to do two things: affect me profoundly while watching it, and stay in my thoughts long after the credits roll. Below are my ten favorite films of 2019 that meet that criteria. You can also check out my list from last year here.
Continue reading “Film Feature: Carrie’s Top 10 Films of 2019”
“You are the most annoying person I have ever met,” Howard Ratner’s soon-to-be ex-wife Dinah (Idina Menzel) tells him midway through Benny and Josh Safdie’s new film Uncut Gems. By that point, you’ll be bound to agree with her. As played by Adam Sandler in a career defining performance, Howard is not exactly pleasant to spend time with. The film, too, can be equally unpleasant: it’s a frenetic, exhausting experience that may leave you emotionally spent. But Sandler is absolutely riveting, and, annoying as Howard may be, he’s a character unlike any we’ve seen before. Sandler’s brilliant portrayal of him is reason alone to give this frenzied picture a chance.
Let me say up front that what you are reading will be a completely spoiler-free review of the new, ninth and final Star Wars movie, The Rise of Skywalker. So read on without fear. I want to be careful about revealing any of the film’s surprises, since, if you’re a fan of the franchise — especially a Gen X’er one like me — you’ve waited a long time for this finale, and you deserve to watch it fresh. Instead, I’m going to talk about feeling, because feeling is big in this film.
Continue reading “Film Review: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker“
As far as family-friendly holiday movies go, you could do worse than British writer/director Tom Harper’s The Aeronauts. An old-fashioned Victorian costume drama, it’s thrilling without being scary, has no sex, swearing, or violence, and extolls the virtues of science, adventure, and reaching for the stars, as it were. And sure, you may forget about it as soon as you walk out of the theater, but you’ll have a pleasant enough time watching its story unfold.
I know a lot of folks who rolled their eyes when they heard that Tom Hanks was going to star as the beloved children’s show host Mr. Rogers. “Can’t this man ever play a serial killer?” they grumbled. While it’s true that in the new film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood Hanks adds yet another saintly character to his resume of real-life hero portrayals (see: Sully, Captain Phillips, Saving Mr. Banks, and Bridge of Spies, to name a few), cynics should unroll their eyes into a forward-facing position long enough to go see this film. First, Hanks actually isn’t even the lead here; Matthew Rhys (The Americans), as a skeptical and unhappy journalist, is. Secondly, and perhaps most critically, Hanks gives a complex and genuinely moving performance.
Continue reading “Film Review: A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood“
Let me start this review by telling you that I know squat about car racing. Indy, NASCAR, road racing — they’re all the same to me. But what I do know is quality film, and Ford v Ferrari definitely comes out a winner in that regard. Director James Mangold’s dramatization of the battle between auto titans Ford and Ferrari for dominance at the 1966 Le Mans race is one of the most adrenaline-filled, rousing good times you’ll have at the theater this year.
I don’t blame you if you’re confused by the phrase “Director’s Cut” above. A director’s cut of a film usually implies that an earlier, theatrically released version preceded it. But, in the case of The Current War, no, you didn’t miss a first release of this picture. It was, however, shown at the 2017 Toronto Film Festival, and picked up for distribution by Harvey Weinstein’s infamous Weinstein Company. When the company folded because of Weinstein’s sexual harassment allegations, many projects were tabled and sold off. When 101 Studios eventually took hold of this title, director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon was granted permission by Martin Scorsese, the film’s executive producer, to make some changes before the film’s theatrical release. So what is opening today is a revised version of what Toronto fans saw two years ago. This version is, thankfully, shorter than the Fest original (why are films this season so long!?), and contains some reshoots. With such a complicated history behind the picture’s theatrical release, the question of course becomes: after all that, is the film worth seeing? My answer is: well, sure, although a few minor flaws keep that “sure” from being a resounding, exclamatory “Yes!!”
Continue reading “Film Review: The Current War: Director’s Cut“
Remember the controversy back in 2013 because a bunch of Australians had dominated the new screen adaptation of The Great Gatsby, that most quintessential of American stories? Fast forward six years, and now we’ve got Brits helming a new biopic of one of America’s most beloved — and troubled — stars, Judy Garland. Fortunately, Judy fares a bit better than Gatsby, thanks in large part to a dazzling performance by Renée Zellweger in the title role.
As a film critic, I try to ignore early buzz on films I’m going to review so I can form my own unbiased opinion when I see the picture. But this month, it was hard to ignore the vitriol that poured on to social media after The Goldfinch premiered at the Toronto Film Festival; hate for the movie was prolific and fierce. So, naturally, going into Monday’s reviewer screening, I was apprehensive: could the picture really be as bad as all that!? I’m here to tell you that, thankfully, it is not. Is it the year’s best film? Far from it, but it’s not nearly as awful as Twitter would have you believe. If you’re a cinema fan — and/or a fan of Donna Tartt’s 2013 Pulitzer Prize winning novel on which the film is based — you will find enough here to keep you interested.