In the world of JT LeRoy, people are so hungry for art that feels edgy and real that they won’t scratch the surface of a facade that turned out to be a multifaceted literary hoax. In the late 1990s, the supposedly autobiographical tales of LeRoy, a transgendered, abused teen whose mother was a truck-stop prostitute, […]
Rocketman (Trailer)
Festival Report: TCM Classic Film Festival 2019
At two different screenings I attended at this year’s 10th annual TCM Classic Film Festival, the person introducing the film stopped to note that their explanation probably wasn’t necessary for the kind of hardcore film nerds that attend TCMFF. That may be true, but one of the best things about the festival is that its […]
Aladdin (Trailer)
Little
Fourteen-year-old Black-ish star Marsai Martin is the mastermind behind high-concept comedy Little, having first pitched the idea to Black-ish creator Kenya Barris when she was just 10 years old. That’s great news for Martin, who becomes the youngest person to ever produce a Hollywood movie thanks to her executive producer credit, but it’s not so […]
Her Smell
Rock star Becky Something (Elisabeth Moss) is self-destructing even before Her Smell begins. Alex Ross Perry’s rock and roll epic opens with Becky’s band Something She playing an encore, and the rest of the movie is a long, languid comedown, as Becky’s life and career implode in slow motion, and then she just as slowly […]
Missing Link
The movies from animation studio Laika have never been big hits, but they’ve always been thoughtful and quirky and entirely distinctive from the sometimes overly similar computer-animated films produced by major Hollywood conglomerates. So it’s a bit disappointing that Laika’s latest film, Missing Link, while thoroughly charming, is the studio’s most conventional to date, with […]
Dogman
Matteo Garrone’s Dogman revolves around the turbulent relationship between a classic good guy and a classic bad guy. The former is Marcello (Marcello Fonte), a doting father and dog groomer who willingly risks his life to save dogs from abuse. The latter, meanwhile, is Simone (Edoardo Pesce), a bulky criminal who gets his way in […]
Long Shot (Trailer)
Dumbo (2019)
Of all the animated classics that Disney has adapted into live-action (or at least photo-realistic) features, 1941’s Dumbo offers probably the loosest framework for a modern large-scale blockbuster. Running just 64 minutes, it was produced on a limited budget to make up for the box-office failures of Fantasia and Pinocchio, and its story is more […]
Us
Us is the best film to hit theaters so far this year, but even with the stretch of months coming and the huge list of blockbusters set for release—this movie will find its way onto multiple top ten lists at the end of the year. The movie revolves around the chilling tale of the Wilson […]
Avengers: Endgame (Trailer)
Dumbo (2019) (Trailer)
Captain Marvel
As the tapestry of the Marvel Cinematic Universe expands further and further, it has become increasingly difficult for individual films to carve out distinctive identities and avoid blending into the overarching narrative and house style of the never-ending mega-franchise. And yet, filmmakers like Ryan Coogler (Black Panther) and James Gunn (the Guardians of the Galaxy […]
Us (Trailer)
Fighting with My Family
Fighting with My Family follows the true story of professional wrestler and WWE Superstar Paige. Saraya-Jade Bevis, better known to the world as Paige, was born with wrestling in her blood. Her father is the legendary Ricky Knight, and her mother is Sweet Saraya Knight, the owners of the infamous Norwich wrestling promotion WAW—the World […]
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
The world of the first How to Train Your Dragon movie was exactly as fleshed-out as it needed to be to tell its simple story of a young Viking who convinced his fellow villagers to befriend dragons rather than destroy them. Subsequent movies have tacked on extra mythology that muddles the elegance of the original’s […]
Alita: Battle Angel
Alita: Battle Angel takes place in a dystopian future, where the Earth never recovered from a devastating war known as The Fall. Set specifically in a place called Iron City, the story follows a cyborg-scientist/doctor who discovers a deactivated female cyborg in a junkyard. Dr. Dyson Ido, played by Academy award-winning Christoph Waltz, revives the […]
Velvet Buzzsaw
Velvet Buzzsaw splatters a satire of the art world across a Tales from the Crypt-style morality lesson. Although not as gruesomely clever or funny as Tales, it gets in some decent barbs amid its behind-the-scenes backstabbing and bloodletting. Writer-director Dan Gilroy (Roman J. Israel, Esq.) reunites with Jake Gyllenhaal and Rene Russo of his directorial […]
The Remarkable Life of John Weld
John Weld was a colorful individual, at least on paper. A 1920s film stuntman turned journalist, Weld became friendly with author James Joyce and actors Clark Gable and Walter Huston, then authored eleven books. But the awe that these escapades should inspire gets lost in the documentary The Remarkable Life of John Weld. Now available on […]