Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund, 2022). Swedish writer-director Ruben Östlund’s initial inspiration for the film Triangle of Sadness was the world of fashion, as reflected by the title’s reference to the furrowed brow that earns a male model (Harris Dickinson) … Continue reading Then Playing — Triangle of Sadness; The Whale; Black Adam
In the summer of 1962, Boston newspapers started printing stories about a series of seemingly connected murders in the city. The victims were found strangled to death in their apartments. After trying out a few other monikers for the killer, … Continue reading Now Playing — Boston Strangler
Critic, Critique Thyself by A.O. Scott I think A.O. Scott is a good film critic. I also think he’s great at writing about being a film critic. Upon the announcement that he’s stepping down from the co-lead position assessing the … Continue reading Outside Reading — The Balcony Is Closed edition
These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. I’m sometimes nostalgic for the era when I could be surprised by a trailer the first time … Continue reading The Art of the Sell — Dirty Rotten Scoundrels teaser trailer
The last time the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences asked Harrison Ford to present the award for Best Picture, they were clearly confident that the Steven Spielberg–director war picture Saving Private Ryan was bound for victory, and it … Continue reading Everything Everywhere All the Oscars
Having completed the process of sharing my own humble views on the top ten movies of the most recent cinematic year, there’s one more bit of business that Coffee for Two tradition dictates before Hollywood hands out shiny prizes on … Continue reading Twenty Performances, or Gach rud i ngach áit go léir ag an am céanna
Calum (Paul Mescal) is on holiday with his tween daughter, Sophie (Frankie Corio). It’s clear that the relationship between Sophie’s parents is over in a way that is somewhere between fraught and sensitive, and this trip to Turkey has a … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2022 — Number One
There is so much happening in Everything Everywhere All at Once that the premise that partnered filmmakers Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert might ever make another feature together almost defies belief. What ideas, themes, gags, and sparks of narrative invention … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2022 — Number Two
Perhaps the blame starts with Joyce Carol Oates. The prolific author of soullessly precise prose wrote the engine block–sized novel that writer director Andrew Dominik adapted into the film Blonde. Oates’s book of the same name is a fictionalized telling … Continue reading The Unwatchables — Blonde
As Dollar Stores Proliferate, Some Communities Say No by Michael Corkery Reporting for The New York Times, Michael Corkery writes about local governments rejecting the incursion of predatory discount shops that underpay employees and strategically drain the local economy, by … Continue reading Outside Reading — Bottom Dollar
Coffee for Two 