The guests arrive expecting a feast. This is not just any generously appointed meal, mind you. It is the sort of vast, all-encompassing experience promised by chef Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes) at his exceedingly exclusive restaurant Hawthorne. With a price … Continue reading Now Playing — The Menu
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever begins and ends in a state of mourning. Certainly, it would be inappropriate for it to be structured in any other way. Any movie that opens with the Marvel Studios logo already carries the weight of … Continue reading Now Playing — Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
For his third feature as a writer-director — and first in more than fifteen years — Todd Field takes a mighty swing. Tár recounts the fall of Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett), an esteemed conductor on the verge of a monumental … Continue reading Now Playing — Tár
It is the spring of 1923 in the humble community on the island of Inisherin, off the coast of Ireland, and Pádraic Súilleabháin (Colin Farrell) is confused by what he’s just been told by his longtime friend Colm Doherty (Brendan … Continue reading Now Playing — The Banshees of Inisherin
Director Ti West’s new film, Pearl, is a prequel, but that hardly matters. Yes, it is narratively connected to X, the springtime release, written and directed by West, that paid tribute to most sordid cinema of the nineteen-seventies with its … Continue reading Now Playing — Pearl
I am neither oblivious nor immune to the pleasure to be had in watching Viola Davis absolutely kick ass on screen. Usually that description is more metaphorical, referring to her ability to take charge of a dramatic scene and command … Continue reading Now Playing — The Woman King
I don’t really know anything about writer-director Jordan Peele’s process when he crafts a new film, but I like to imagine that he starts with the first story idea that comes to mind and then pushes himself — pointedly and … Continue reading Now Playing — Nope
I want to review the new film Thor: Love and Thunder without feeling obligated to contextualize it against the whole Marvel moviemaking machine, but I’m not sure that’s possible. Well, it’s likely possible. Maybe it’s not advisable. It is officially … Continue reading Now Playing — Thor: Love and Thunder
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
Coffee for Two 