Crossing Delancey (Joan Micklin Silver, 1988). This gentle romantic comedy has the wafting charm of a fable. Isabelle (Amy Irving) is an independent New Yorker with a habit of dabbling with the wrong men. When her grandmother (Reizl Bozyk) enlists … Continue reading Then Playing — Crossing Delancey; The Climb; Don’t Let Go
Four men gather at the edge of a nation that simultaneously exalts and oppresses them. They are famous, and at least a couple of them are generously compensated for the actions that earned them notoriety. They also are confined to … Continue reading Now Playing — One Night in Miami
Promising Young Woman is a gleaming arsenic lollipop with a razor blade hidden in the middle. It’s enticing and delicious but it also induces queasy wooziness, and then, with the barest warning, it cuts deep. The film is merciless and … Continue reading Now Playing — Promising Young Woman
Driveways (Andrew Ahn, 2020). There are few stories of bonding more cliched than the sad, lonely child who befriends a crusty elderly fellow, both growing in charming and moving ways because of the relationship. That makes it borderline miraculous that … Continue reading Then Playing — Driveways; Babyteeth; Collective
With Soul, Pete Docter positions himself as Pixar’s official conceptualizer of the elusive inner lives of humanity. That’s a lofty pronouncement, to be sure, and is especially hoity-toity to apply it to films that are, at their cores, family entertainment. … Continue reading Now Playing — Soul
I’m Your Woman (Julia Hart, 2020). Set in the nineteen-seventies, I’m Your Woman casts Rachel Brosnahan as Jean, whose small-time-crook husband (Bill Heck) goes missing not long after he presents her with a baby acquired under mysterious circumstances. For their … Continue reading Then Playing — I’m Your Woman; The Vast of Night; Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
#1 — Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014) If the best film directors can be said to have central preoccupations that run through their entire oeuvre like a central nervous system, then Richard Linklater’s is the stealthy, patient alchemy that manifests when … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number One
Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets (Bill Ross IV and Turner Ross, 2020). Depicting the last day of operation for a Las Vegas dive bar, Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets accurately captures the wounded rhythms of a place that serves as a refuge … Continue reading Then Playing — Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets; Tenet; Lovers Rock
When Wonder Woman arrived in movie houses three and a half years ago, there was a lot riding on the amazing Amazon’s shoulders. Although superheroes were solidly established as the dominant building blocks for Hollywood blockbusters, the various films efforts … Continue reading Now Playing — Wonder Woman 1984
Does “Wonder Woman 1984” Hide Its Hero’s True Superpowers? by Jill Lepore To evaluate the new Wonder Woman movie, The New Yorker turns to staff writer Jill Lepore, who wrote an entire book on the amazing Amazon and her creators. … Continue reading Outside Reading — Fantastically Powered Princess edition
Coffee for Two 