Reviews of films directed by Peyton Reed, Lizzie Gottlieb, and Greg Mottola Continue reading Then Playing — Down with Love; Turn Every Page: The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb; The Daytrippers
Reviews of films directed by Colm Bairéad, Daniel Goldhaber, and Cord Jefferson.
Continue reading Then Playing — The Quiet Girl; How to Blow Up a Pipeline; American Fiction
Talk to Me (Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou, 2023). This horror film, the feature debut by twin brothers Danny and Michael Philippou, employs the sturdy concept of a cursed object that wreaks deadly havoc on a group of foolhardy souls … Continue reading Then Playing — Talk to Me; Scream; Messiah of Evil
Fall (Scott Mann, 2022). The premise of Fall is so perfectly suited for a feat of inventive B-movie storytelling that its relatively drab execution proves doubly disappointing. Working from a script he co-wrote (with Jonathan Frank), director Scott Mann brings … Continue reading Then Playing — Fall; Air; The Mighty Quinn
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
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
To Leslie (Michael Morris, 2022). The feature directorial debut of Michael Morris (who has a formidable number of prestige television helming credits to his name) plays like a throwback to the pre-Tarantino era of independent American cinema, when there was … Continue reading Then Playing — To Leslie; Bodies Bodies Bodies; Women Talking
Causeway (Lila Neugebauer, 2022). In a welcome return to a more small-scale drama, Jennifer Lawrence plays Lynsey, a soldier who returns to her home city of New Orleans after sustaining a traumatic brain injury while deployed in Afghanistan. Lawrence is … Continue reading Then Playing — Causeway; All Quiet on the Western Front; Remember My Name
Near Dark (Kathryn Bigelow, 1987). It’s amusing now to see that Kathryn Bigelow filled her solo directorial debut with actors imported from Aliens, the action sequel made the previous years by her future husband, James Cameron. Especially since Cameron has … Continue reading Then Playing — Near Dark; Elvis; Amsterdam
White Noise (Noah Baumbach, 2022). The only way this film can reasonable be deemed a success is by subscribing to the wholly unsupported premise that writer-director Noah Baumbach set out to prove that Don DeLillo’s landmark 1985 novel was accurately … Continue reading Then Playing — White Noise; Resurrection; The Eternal Daughter
Coffee for Two 