Category: Films

Film Review: “Stillwater”

McCarthy’s newest is pas mal, thanks to Damon and Cottin 

Oklahoman Bill (Matt Damon) navigates the complex city of Marseille as he tries to help his daughter.

Stillwater is a strange movie that somehow works in spite of itself. It tries to be many things: a murder mystery, a character study, a redemptive father/daughter drama, a romance, and a fish out of water culture clash, to name just a few. Some of these elements are strong and some are weak, but, taken together, they create a whole that is worth more than its parts, and make the picture worth a look despite its flaws.
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Film Review: “Old”

Shyamalan’s latest underwhelms

Charles (Rufus Sewell) isn’t having the best time of it, and neither are we watching him.

M. Night Shyamalan was nominated for writing and directing Oscars for the inarguably brilliant The Sixth Sense over 20 years ago, and he’s been trying to replicate that success ever since. Unfortunately, each of his offerings since then, aside from 2002’s box office victory Signs, has been met with high hopes and then dashed expectations. His newest film, Old, is a similar disappointment. “Disappointing” is actually too kind a word for this picture; unwatchable and laughable are probably more accurate descriptors.
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Film Review: “Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain”

Thoughtful doc considers life and loss

Chef, writer, and world traveler Anthony Bourdain.

Director Morgan Neville, who won an Oscar for 20 Feet from Stardom and multiple awards for the Mr. Rogers documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor takes on the late celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain in his new film Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain. The subtitle is somewhat curious; yes, the film is about Bourdain, but while Neville briefly touches on Bourdain’s early life, anyone looking for a thorough biographical sketch of the man won’t find it here. Ultimately, the film is less of an all-encompassing biography, and more of a meditation on life and its attendant joys and sorrows and suicide, loss, and grief. On that level, it works exceptionally well.
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Film Review: “The Summer of Soul”

The revolution is finally televised

Gladys Knight and the Pips at the Harlem Cultural Festival
Gladys Knight and the Pips at the Harlem Cultural Festival

The scene: Thousands of music lovers packed around a stage. Guitars, drums, keys, horns, harmonicas all playing together, and together getting heads to bob and bodies to sway. It’s the summer of ‘69, and this isn’t Woodstock. Continue reading “Film Review: “The Summer of Soul””

Film Review: “In the Heights”

Celebration of community rises to new Heights in joyful adaptation

Usnavi (Anthony Ramos) and Vanessa (Melissa Barrera) celebrate with their friends and neighbors.

Full disclosure: I’m someone who doesn’t typically like musicals. I’m jarred when, mid-conversation, characters break into a big song and dance number, and everyone acts like that’s a totally normal way to communicate. Then the dialogue resumes, as if nothing out of the ordinary has happened. I’ve never been able to wrap my head around that. So I was a bit apprehensive to see the film version of In the Heights, a musical I had seen live, and hadn’t found memorable. But my cynical self was blown away: not only is the movie better than I could have imagined, but it benefits tremendously from the shift to the big screen. Continue reading “Film Review: “In the Heights””

Film Feature: 2021 Dreamspeakers International Indigenous Film Festival

The Dreamspeakers Festival Society website states that “When the first Dene filmmaker returned home to Canada’s Northwest Territories, his people had no words for his new art. They call it ‘Dreamtalking’.” The term ‘Dene’ refers to both the native language (also called Athabascan) and also the Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Territories in Canada. Dreamspeakers was founded in 1993, and for the last 28 years has highlighted the films and media art of Indigenous artists from nations around the globe.

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Film Review: “The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It”

The devil went up to Connecticut; he was lookin’ for a soul to steal

Ed Warren (Patrick Wilson) stands up to evil.

Now is a great time to go to the movies (assuming you’ve had at least one, and ideally both, vaccine jabs). The long hiatus from theater-going means that even the most mediocre films will benefit greatly from being seen on a large screen, blasting through surround sound systems, and riding the energy of an exuberant audience. The third installation of The Conjuring movies, not including the Conjuring universe spin-offs Annabelle, The Nun, and La Llorona, is not mediocre by any means.

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Film Review: “A Quiet Place Part II”

Outstanding sequel worth the wait

Evelyn (Emily Blunt) implores her injured son Marcus (Noah Jupe) to be quiet in the face of imminent danger.

Last March, I was all set to go to the advance reviewer screening of A Quiet Place II when the Bay Area began to shelter-in-place. The screening was cancelled and the movie’s release postponed. But this week I finally made it to that reviewer screening, marking my return to the cinema, some 14 months later. And it was worth the wait. Because not only is Part II terrific, but releasing it earlier via streaming wouldn’t have done it justice. This picture is meant for the big screen.

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Film Review: “Dream Horse”

Collette shines in horse racing charmer 

Jan (Toni Collette) develops a special bond with her new racehorse, Dream Alliance.

With theaters slowly reopening, film lovers may be waiting for the perfect film to get them up off the couch and back into the multiplex. Dream Horse may be just that film: it’s an old fashioned, feel-good movie that should motivate the whole family to undertake a cinematic outing.

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Film Review: “Here Today”

Crystal, Haddish can’t save strained so-called ‘comedy’ 

Emma (Tiffany Haddish) and Charlie (Billy Crystal) become good friends.

Back in 1989, Nora Ephron, in her film When Harry Met Sally, posed the age-old question: Can men and women ever really be friends? Now, thirty-two years later, Billy Crystal, who played the titular Harry, returns in Here Today to tell us that not only can men and women be friends, but that their friendship can yield an uninteresting, unfunny movie. Call this one When Charlie Met Snooze

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