In many ways, sci-fi thriller Minor Premise feels like a throwback to early Christopher Nolan. Brainy and talky, it relies more on the thrill of discovery than the conventions of a modern-day thriller to tell its story. The movie, the feature directorial debut of Eric Shultz, centers on Ethan Kochar (Sathya Sridharan), a neuroscientist whose […]
One Night in Miami
Four icons of 1960s Black culture didn’t actually gather in a Miami hotel room on the night of February 25, 1964, to discuss important personal and societal issues, but playwright Kemp Powers’ imagined version of that meeting feels genuine. Regina King effectively adapts Powers’ One Night in Miami into a feature film (with a screenplay by […]
Wander
You’d better pray Arthur Breznik is crazy. Because otherwise, we’re in real trouble. An ex-detective with post-traumatic stress, Arthur’s currently living way off the grid and battling bad dreams and horrific hallucinations. He’s also convinced there’s a government conspiracy to kidnap people and implant them with tracking devices. But, you know, just because he’s a […]
The Top 10 Movies of 2020
In any recap of 2020, what can one say that hasn’t already been said? The ongoing global dissection of the year’s internal stresses, external vitriol, and painful events put escapism at a premium — the kind of mental getaway that movies often provide. But with theaters closed, or almost universally avoided, where does that attempt […]
Pieces of a Woman
After a few short opening scenes, Pieces of a Woman plunges the viewer into a harrowing 23-minute single-take sequence of childbirth gone wrong, as Martha (Vanessa Kirby) and her partner Sean (Shia LaBeouf) slowly realize that their home birth with midwife Eva (Molly Parker) is not going to end with the joyous event they anticipated. […]
Soul
After exploring the complex world of anthropomorphic emotions in 2015’s Inside Out, Pixar’s Pete Docter takes on the complex world of the afterlife in Soul, which deals with similarly melancholy themes. As in Inside Out, director and co-writer Docter takes on some weighty existential ideas for what is ostensibly a family-focused animated movie, and Soul […]
Promising Young Woman
How could a film this palpably angry be so gleefully entertaining? How could a film that is, ostensibly, a disturbing tragedy be so compulsively watchable? Such is the mystifying brilliance of Promising Young Woman, so deft in its navigation of conflicting styles and contradictory thematic emotions that it’s something of a miracle. Odd to feel […]
News of the World
Tom Hanks may be getting a little weary of his designated role as America’s surrogate dad, but it fits him perfectly in the appealingly old-fashioned Western News of the World, which reunites Hanks with Captain Phillips director Paul Greengrass. Greengrass is known for the gritty immediacy of both his fact-based dramas like Captain Phillips, United […]
Archenemy
Superhero movies have been a major part of the pop-culture landscape for such a long time now that new takes on the genre are often refreshing. This is just what Archenemy attempts to offer. However, despite some promising elements, the movie takes an odd turn before finally glossing over its most promising development. Archenemy, which […]
Songbird
Songbird was the first movie filmed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Michael Bay-produced project went into production in July while Los Angeles was on lockdown, which no doubt made it easier to shoot in the city’s usually bustling streets. The movie also takes the pandemic as its inspiration. It imagines a scenario only two years […]
Black Beauty
The story of Black Beauty has captured imaginations since the publication of Anna Sewell’s novel in 1877. Over the years, there have been numerous film and TV adaptations of the book, and even a theater production. The latest movie version, which is exclusive to the streaming service Disney+, takes liberties with the original novel while […]
The Sounding
What do you call it when you keep trying to fix something even when it isn’t broken? In The Sounding, you call it psychiatry. A strikingly unique debut from director and star Catherine Eaton, it’s the moving story of Olivia, a 30-something woman who doesn’t speak. She can, of course. There’s been no physical injury, […]
L’Autre
In the opening moments of the French film L’Autre (which translates to “The Other”), main character Marie (Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey) is dancing. Soon though, after her father’s sudden death in a terrible accident, she gives up on dance, just like she gives up on almost everything else in her life. What follows is difficult to describe. […]
The Racer
Set during the doping scandal of the 1998 Tour de France, The Racer is a fictional story reflective of cycling culture at the time, in which the use of performance-enhancing drugs was a widespread open secret. But director and co-writer Kieron J. Walsh isn’t interested in social commentary, and there’s very little judgment here of […]
The Ringmaster
The documentary The Ringmaster tells two stories. On the one hand, it focuses on the onion rings created by chef Larry Lang, which are considered the world’s best by those who’ve tasted them. On the other, it follows the filmmaker, Zachary Capp, as he becomes increasingly consumed by his project, sinks more and more time […]
Run
After putting a fresh spin on the missing-teen thriller with his 2018 debut Searching, which took place entirely on computer and cell phone screens, director Aneesh Chaganty opts for a more traditional format for his second feature, Run. Although it’s presented conventionally, Run still takes a smart approach to a familiar thriller plot, delivering another […]
Rom Boys: 40 Years of Rad
When you think of skateboarding culture, a working-class London suburb is probably not the first place that comes to mind, but that’s exactly where the mecca of European skateboarding emerged in the late 1970s. Matt Harris’ documentary Rom Boys: 40 Years of Rad explores the unlikely rise and even unlikelier legacy of the Rom Skatepark, a […]
Dreamland
With echoes of Bonnie and Clyde and movies set in the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, Dreamland feels familiar and original at the same time. The film follows Eugene Evans (Finn Cole) a teenager on the cusp of manhood. When Eugene was just five years old, his father left. The only contact Eugene has with […]
Wolfwalkers
Irish animation studio Cartoon Saloon started making movies on a small scale with 2009’s The Secret of Kells, a gorgeously illustrated fable inspired by Irish folklore, and the company has grown in size and reputation over the course of its first three features, all of which were nominated for the Best Animated Feature Oscar. Wolfwalkers […]
Chick Fight
Chick Fight centers on down-on-her-luck Anna (Malin Akerman), for whom things have gotten so bad, it’s pretty much impossible for her to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Her mother recently died, her car’s been repossessed, her coffee-shop business is failing and her widowed father (Kevin Nash), who’s come out as bisexual, […]