Gas Food Lodging (Allison Anders, 1992). Here is early nineteen-nineties independent U.S. filmmaking in all its charm and shortcoming. Gas Food Lodging is a small story rendered with intimate emotional detail and acted with wildly varying ability. Simultaneously endearing and … Continue reading Then Playing — Gas Food Lodging; The Tragedy of Macbeth; C’mon C’mon
Respect (Liesl Tommy, 2021). In her feature directorial debut, Liesl Tommy brings a lot of panache to the familiar form of a music icon’s biopic. Tracing the youth and professional ascendance of Aretha Franklin (played in childhood by Skye Dakota … Continue reading Then Playing — Respect; Red Rocket; Belfast
Hallelujah (King Vidor, 1929). Hampered by problematic stereotypes imposed by studio leadership that was otherwise unwilling to fund a production featuring a cast entirely comprised of Black performers, Hallelujah nonetheless provides a hint as how different the Golden Age of … Continue reading Then Playing — Hallelujah; Ghostbusters: Afterlife; Villain
Don’t Look Up (Adam McKay, 2021). Following the inspired The Big Short and the unwatchable Vice, director Adam McKay continues his run as a satiric auteur of lefty outrage with this onion skin–thin allegory of political indifference to the climate … Continue reading Then Playing — Don’t Look Up; Paper Moon; The Friends of Eddie Coyle
Spencer (Pablo Larraín, 2021). Chilean director Pablo Larraín brings the airy, arty approach of his 2016 film Jackie to another iconic female figure on the world stage. As in the earlier drama, Larraín keeps the focus on a few days, … Continue reading Then Playing — Spencer; No Man of Her Own; The Southerner
Maggie Gyllenhaal didn’t opt for an easy task with her feature directorial debut. There’s presumably a straightforward way to to adapt Elena Ferrante’s 2008 novel, The Lost Daughter, to the screen, laying out the embers of emotion and the character … Continue reading Now Playing — The Lost Daughter
The Matrix (Lana Wachowski and Lilly Wachowski, 1999). In revisiting this ahead of the recent sequel, my reaction more or less mirrored original impressions from my opening-weekend experience in the theater what seems like centuries ago. The Wachowski siblings manage … Continue reading Then Playing — The Matrix; The Green Knight; Zola
I appreciate that Lana Wachowski, usually in collaboration with sibling Lilly Wachowski, tried to do other things. They didn’t always work, not entirely, but there was at least an attempt to tell different stories in eager exploitation of the lingering … Continue reading Now Playing — The Matrix Resurrections
Aaron Sorkin channels a lot of his interests into Being the Ricardos. The writer-director hits upon political bullying, television production, creatives bucking against killjoy executive, and snappish relationships predicated on a version of romance that has no apparent love in … Continue reading Now Playing — Being the Ricardos
When I delved in devotedly to superhero sagas, many Marvel Comics Calendars ago, it was generally understood that the publisher of Spider-Man’s super stories was able to maintain a more coherent continuity because they hadn’t tinkered around in alternate universes … Continue reading Now Playing — Spider-Man: No Way Home
Coffee for Two 