Side Street (Anthony Mann, 1950). This sweaty film noir casts the ever-wooden Farley Granger as Joe Norson, a down-on-his-luck postal worker who decides to steal some cash from a law office on his route. What he believes to be a … Continue reading Then Playing — Side Street; Smithereens; The Batman
It’s been a little more than five years since Marvel’s master of the mystic arts took center frame in a film bearing his name. He’s hardly been absent in that span. Dr. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) has been the Billie … Continue reading Now Playing — Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
The Northman begins in the ninth century, and it looks it. Drawing on Scandinavian legend so distant that it’s thought to have served as inspiration for William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the film follows Amleth (Alexander Skarsgård, and briefly, as a boy, … Continue reading Now Playing — The Northman
I have rarely encountered a film more aptly titled than Everything Everywhere All at Once. The second feature film written and directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (cheekily billed as “The Daniels”) earns that accuracy through its densely complicated … Continue reading Now Playing — Everything Everywhere All at Once
The Ex-Mrs. Bradford (Stephen Roberts, 1936). No one played a well-to-do gent dapperly cavorting through a murder mystery like William Powell. In between turns as Nick Charles, he plays Dr. Lawrence Bradford in this spiked trifle, reuniting with his ex-wife … Continue reading Then Playing — The Ex-Mrs. Bradford; Death on the Nile; Moonfall
Writer-director Ti West has a clear, abiding affection for bygone eras when certain film genres were afforded the space to exist in their own dark ecosystem. He is an expert explicator of templates and tropes, slyly operating on the borderline … Continue reading Now Playing — X
It is admittedly no feat to spot the influences in a film directed by Kogonada. With After Yang, the South Korean-born filmmaker has two features to his name. He also has a slew of film essays on the work of … Continue reading Now Playing — After Yang
In Kimi, the new film from director Steven Soderbergh, Zoë Kravitz plays Angela Childs, a quality control worker for a fledging tech company. Her employer’s main product is a virtual personal assistant device called Kimi, and its distinctive attribute is … Continue reading Now Playing — Kimi
Much as the Sundance Film Festival is adored for showcasing uniquely daring independent films, the roster always has a few slots for the genially frivolous. That big-tent approach has sometimes led to truly baffling entries over the years. Just as … Continue reading Sundance 2022 — Part 3
Much as I appreciate film festivals’ general commitment to heavy dramas and effectively dispiriting documentaries, I am equally pleased that there is often special space carved out for the gloriously gory. You Won’t Be Alone, the feature debut from seasoned … Continue reading Sundance 2022 — Part 2
Coffee for Two 