Okay, let’s start with Hitler. Taika Waititi’s new film, Jojo Rabbit, is built around a conceit that’s basically a sick joke dramatized. In Germany, as the end of World War II looms, a ten-year-old named Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis) is … Continue reading Now Playing — Jojo Rabbit
At the beginning of Parasite, the new film from director Bong Joon-ho, the Kim family is so far down on the economic ladder that they’re literally underground. Their cramped, cluttered apartment is in the basement of a South Korean urban … Continue reading Now Playing — Parasite
Documentary filmmakers Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar live in Dayton, Ohio, one of many Midwestern U.S. cities that has historically counted on manufacturing to provide gainful employment for the citizenry. When the community’s auto manufacturing facility shut its doors, in … Continue reading Now Playing — American Factory
It’s a simple tenet, too often ignored. The more specific a work of art, the more likely the piece resonates with a thoroughly enmeshed truthfulness that approaches the universal. A film doesn’t need to be autobiographical to qualify, nor is … Continue reading Now Playing — The Farewell
By now, it should be be no surprise that a new Quentin Tarantino film finds the filmmakers shuffling together all his good and bad instincts like the thick, blood-speckled cards of a tarot deck. Then they’re flipped up with a … Continue reading Now Playing — Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood
I greatly admire Hereditary, Ari Aster’s feature directorial debut, but I completely understand how some moviegoers might have developed an aversion to it by the end. There’s no charity from me to those who rankled at the visual resplendent and insidious … Continue reading Now Playing — Midsommar
It has been a mere three years since Tom Holland took his first swings as Spider-Man, bringing the character into the Marvel Cinematic Universe proper in Captain America: Civil War. It seems as though the young English thespian has been … Continue reading Now Playing — Spider-Man: Far From Home
So maybe here’s where the story ends? Nearly twenty-five years after Toy Story launched Pixar into the field of feature film production and almost a decade past Toy Story 3, which seemed to provide an ideal conclusion to the franchise, … Continue reading Now Playing — Toy Story 4
Martin Scorsese’s side career as a documentary filmmaker has largely been a verification of all the stuff anyone would suspect he adores, from the Rolling Stones to erudite New York institutions. A director with nothing truly left to prove, but … Continue reading Now Playing — Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese
For her feature directorial debut, Olivia Wilde wanted to up the intensity of a high school movie. Screenwriter Katie Silberman was brought in to rework a script that had already passed through a few word processors, and she says Wilde’s … Continue reading Now Playing — Booksmart
