The work of Nicolas Cage brings to mind a sort of gonzo, off-kilter approach to characters that has solidified him in the hearts of fans everywhere, even when he’s taken parts in movies that aren’t nearly as good as he is. So Cage should be the perfect choice to lead idiosyncratic Japanese auteur Sion Sono’s […]
Seeding Change: The Power of Conscious Commerce
Can a company do well by doing good? According to Seeding Change: The Power of Conscious Commerce, the simple answer is “Yes.” But the way there is a bit complicated. It involves dealing with your suppliers honestly. Respecting the environment, at every stage of the process. And then putting some of your profits to work […]
Overrun
Overrun is an action movie that gets one thing very right. It takes its filmmaking seriously. It doesn’t take itself seriously. Perhaps that’s because a lot of the people making it – behind and in front of the camera – are veteran stunt players. They still remember being kids at recess, and showing off their […]
Queenpins
Based on surprising true events, Queenpins is the story of two women who take control of their lives by launching an illegal coupon scam. It’s a fascinating tale that has compelling built-in themes about the way the system treats average people and wanting more out of life. Unfortunately, the movie, which was written and directed […]
Language Lessons
Once upon a time, unconventional long-distance friendships were nearly impossible to create and sustain, but the digitization of the world has made it possible to circumvent the nagging issue of distance with the onslaught of video chat services like Skype and Zoom. Now, thanks to the last year-and-a-half of intermittent isolation, these connections are more […]
Kate
It seems like almost every other week, a movie about an elite assassin — usually on a mission of revenge — is released. Call it the John Wick effect. Adding to this burgeoning subgenre is an ever-growing set of movies in which the central assassin is female, such as The Protégé, Ava, and Gunpowder Milkshake. […]
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is the latest entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and despite being the 25th film in the franchise, it’s a fresh, exciting introduction to the series’ newest superhero. Unlike the recently released Black Widow, the ostensible kick-off to Phase 4, Shang-Chi feels like it’s all about the future […]
The Year of the Everlasting Storm
In a world so vast and varied, sometimes it takes a tragedy to remind us how connected we are. A once-in-a-century pandemic fits that bill. Even as cultures remain divergent, lifestyles vary, and customs clash around the world, the sudden onset and rapid spread of COVID-19 brought us together even as it, quite contradictorily, forced […]
We Had It Coming
We Had It Coming is a film full of lonely places. Wide stretches of empty Canadian highway. No-name motels with equally anonymous occupants. Places you pass through, without looking, without caring. People you don’t really see. We Had It Coming demands we look, though. Look into the eyes of women, especially – women pushed around […]
Candyman (2021)
The conceit behind the legend of Candyman is that it – or “he” – can only survive through the persistent retelling of his story. That terrifying specter can only thrive if he’s permitted to linger in our collective subconscious. But there’s another perspective to the story, a view from the other side of the mirror. […]
Ema
Pablo Larrain’s last film, Jackie, was a film whose ending seemed like an ongoing cascade of concluding imagery, its many blended themes finally untangling, and each given its own singular final flourish. It felt like the film ended for 15 minutes straight, but oh, what an ending. Conversely, Larrain’s latest film, Ema, feels like it’s […]
Behemoth
If you were to take a casual glance at the promotional poster for Behemoth, and you catch a glimpse of the impressively nasty looking creature that figures prominently on that poster, you might get a charge of excitement for what looks like an ornately gruesome creature feature. You’d be wrong. No, Behemoth is not a […]
Rare Beasts
Billie Piper, the writer, director, and star of the black comedy Rare Beasts, is best known to American audiences for playing Rose Tyler, companion to the ninth and tenth Doctors on the revival of Doctor Who. More recently, she co-created and starred in HBO Max’s I Hate Suzie, an engrossing, frequently thought-provoking eight-episode exploration of […]
Demonic
It’s been six years since Neill Blomkamp’s last feature film, and in the meantime he’s been attached to failed franchise reboots (Alien, RoboCop) and has been quietly making short films with his Oats Studios company. Blomkamp’s new indie feature Demonic feels like an outgrowth of those proof-of-concept short films, a thinly conceived genre story that exists […]
Risen
A meteorite strikes a small town in Pennsylvania, making the air toxic and killing everyone in the vicinity. A short while later, the dead who were closest to the meteorite when it landed start coming back to life. To figure out what’s going on, the man leading the investigation, Colonel Emmerich (Jack Campbell), calls in […]
Free Guy
We’re all the main characters of our own stories, but in other people’s stories the best we can hope for is a supporting role. In Free Guy, endearing lonely-heart bank teller Guy (Ryan Reynolds) learns he’s nothing more than a background character in the story he’s unwittingly a part of. When he decides to change […]
Beckett
After debuting on opening night at this year’s Locarno Film Festival, Beckett arrives on Netflix as another in a long line of films about ordinary men caught up in extraordinary circumstances. The movie takes obvious cues from ’70s thrillers like Three Days of the Condor and Hitchcock masterpieces like North by Northwest, yet director Ferdinando […]
CODA
CODA lives on the very thin and dangerous line between transcendent crowd-pleaser and overwhelming manipulation. In fact, its screenplay functions like a constant one-two punch, disarming the audience with a heavy dose of conventional schmaltz before delivering a blow of deeply resonant emotion. Its rapturous response at this year’s Sundance Film Festival – where it […]
Camp Wedding
Having a wedding can be a scream. A tongue-in-cheek tribute to old slasher films, Camp Wedding revolves around Mia – which is only fitting, because she thinks the whole world should revolve around her. A bridezilla on a mission, she’s planned a special destination-wedding for her nuptials. The only problem is, the destination she’s picked […]
The Suicide Squad
Maybe it’s just the source material? That’s one plausible conclusion to reach on the back end of The Suicide Squad, James Gunn’s quasi-sequel, quasi-reboot (rebooquel?) to the unmitigated disaster that was David Ayer’s 2016 Suicide Squad, since the new film falls prey to the same minefield that blew up the original. Mercifully, Gunn’s film at […]