Carrie Kahn – Page 15 – Spinning Platters

Film Review: A Star is Born

Lady Gaga, not Cooper’s debut film, is the real Star here

Mega star Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper) and up-and-coming singer Ally (Lady Gaga) bond over songwriting.

What do the years 1937, 1954, and 1976 have in common with 2018? They, too, all had versions of the film A Star is Born playing in cinemas. Whether or not the movie-going public really needs a third remake of the 1937 original is up for debate (the ’54 and ’76 versions famously starred Judy Garland and Barbara Streisand, respectively), but actor Bradley Cooper apparently felt strongly that 2018 is the right moment for another try. He makes his writing and directing debut here, directing himself in a modern version of the classic story that, while showcasing the incredible talent of his co-star Lady Gaga, brings nothing fresh or extraordinary to the well-worn tale.

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Film Review: Life Itself

Your life itself deserves better than this trite, facile disaster

Abby (Olivia Wilde) and Will (Oscar Isaac) are so very much in love. Too bad they’re in a Dan Fogelman drama.

I’m trying to come up with one kind thing to say about Life Itself, the new movie from writer/director Dan Fogelman, creator of television’s weep-inducing phenom This is Us, and all I can come up with is, boy, Oscar Isaac sure is nice to look at. When one of the film’s characters proclaims outright, “This is some deep philosophical shit,” you know you’re in trouble. Fogelman commits the cardinal screenwriting sin of telling (and over and over and over, mind you) rather than showing, and the result is a cringe-inducing, treacly, overwrought mess of a picture that even This is Us fans will do well to avoid.

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Film Review: A Simple Favor

Feig’s Favor to you: A twisty, stylish picture with a sly sense of humor

Suburban moms Stephanie (Anna Kendrick, l.) and Emily (Blake Lively) become fast friends over martinis.

“Secrets are like margarine: easy to spread; bad for the heart,” muses perky mommy vlogger Stephanie (Anna Kendrick) in director Paul Feig’s new film A Simple Favor, and does that ever prove to be a prophetic understatement. Feig, best known for helming the comedies Bridesmaids and The Heat, brings a breezy, stylized light touch to the film adaptation of Darcey Bell’s 2017 debut mystery thriller of the same name. The result is a mostly successful mash up of black comedy and icy noir that, despite similarities to better films, still manages to be a wickedly fun good time.

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Film Review: The Wife

Close’s powerhouse performance elevates marital melodrama

Joan (Glenn Close) reacts as her husband Joe (Jonathan Pryce) receives some good news.

What sacrifices are acceptable for the sake of art? For marriage? Swedish director Björn Runge explores these questions in his new film The Wife, which, if nothing else, may become the film most remembered for netting six-time Academy Award nominee Glenn Close her first Oscar. Close’s performance is the best reason to see the picture, which manages to thoughtfully present serious themes while teetering on the edge of melodrama.

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Film Review: BlacKkKlansman

Lee’s tonally uneven picture diminishes impact of relevant, astonishing true story

Colorado Springs detective Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) infiltrates the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan.

Released just two days before the one year anniversary of the deadly Charlottesville, VA white nationalist rally and this Sunday’s “Unite the Right” white nationalist DC march, and coming on the heels of the recent Proud Boys/Patriot Prayer “Western chauvinist” gatherings in Portland and Berkeley, director Spike Lee’s polemical new film BlacKkKlansman is both relevant and disheartening in the way it reveals how little has changed in the 40+ years since the based-on-a-true story takes place. That the film’s message remains topical and necessary is indisputable; that it’s executed so poorly, then, is a disappointment.

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SFJFF38 Spotlights #2: To Dust/The Last Suit/Simon and Théodore/Wajib/The Devil We Know

The 38th San Francisco Jewish Film Festival is going strong; it entered its second week today, and we’ve got five more spotlights for you (you can find our first round of coverage here). Below we profile four more feature films and one documentary. Complete programming and ticket information can be found here; now get out there and see some films before the Festival ends on August 5th!

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Film Review: Eighth Grade

The agony and the adolescence of middle school

8th grader Kayla (Elsie Fisher) spends much of her free time on her smart phone.

Regular readers of Spinning Platters may have noticed that I’m partial to coming of age films; The Way, Way Back is a personal favorite, and I had both The Edge of Seventeen and Me and Earl and the Dying Girl on my Top 10 lists for their respective years. But all three of those have now been pushed aside in favor of a new genre champion: writer/director Bo Burnham’s feature debut Eighth Grade sets a new standard for all future coming of age pictures. Filmmakers may as well concede now, because no other film will ever come close to measuring up to this exquisite masterpiece.

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Film Review: Blindspotting

Local boys make good in masterful look at their changing city

Longtime Oakland friends Collin (Daveed Diggs, l.) and Miles (Rafael Casal) assess their changing city.

Berkeley High grads and old friends Daveed Diggs (of Broadway’s Hamilton fame) and local slam poet and artist Rafael Casal join Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station; Black Panther) and Boots Riley (Sorry to Bother You) in bringing Oakland to the big screen, in a timely and powerful picture that should be required viewing not only for all Bay Area residents, but also for those who want to understand the ever shifting cultural and economic landscape of a Bay Area in flux. Diggs and Casal both wrote and star in Blindspotting, under the direction of their TV and short film director friend Carlos López Estrada, who makes his extraordinary feature film debut here, and was rewarded with a Sundance Grand Jury Prize nomination for his efforts.

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SFJFF38 Spotlights #1: Budapest Noir/Memoir of War/Murer–Anatomy of a Murder/The Interpreter/Promise at Dawn

The 38th San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, showcasing over 65 films from more than twenty countries, opens this Thursday, July 19th, and runs for two and a half weeks, concluding on Sunday, Aug. 5th. Films will be shown at venues in San Francisco, Palo Alto, Albany, Oakland, and San Rafael, so there is plenty of time and opportunity to see a lot of quality films. Below we spotlight five Festival movies that you may want to check out. Complete schedule, tickets, and more information are available here. And be sure and follow Spinning Platters for more coverage during the Festival!

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Film Review: Sicario: Day of the Soldado

Border drama sequel lacks depth, insight

Covert operative Alejandro Gillick (Benicio Del Toro) and CIA agent Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) discuss strategy.

The makers of Sicario: Day of the Soldado probably couldn’t have predicted just how relevant their film would be today back when it was greenlit to follow its 2015 precursor Sicario. But those hoping for a searing dramatization of the inner workings of the U.S./Mexico border patrol and its operators will be sorely disappointed with this sequel, which offers plenty of gore and violence, but little in the way of prescient or urgent social commentary.

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