Monthly Archives: September 2018

“55 Steps” almost certainly started life with “Oscar bait” in its pitch. Getting a digital release ahead of theatrical kind of tosses that out the window. Helena Bonham Carter as “we’ve never seen her for,” a mental patient whose test … Continue reading →

The desperation is palpable, the pitfalls predictable and the road rough in “Roxanne Roxanne,” one rapper’s rise during the early years of New York hip hop. Michael Larnell’s flinty and uplifting film of the early days of Lolita “Roxanne Shanté” … Continue reading →

with With all the emphasis we put on “plot” in the movies, novelty in the setting, situations and obsessions of the characters, it’s a shame when a comedy comes along that can’t make the most of a good one. Record … Continue reading →

Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam, the Brit-Sri Lankan rapper, designer and filmmaker known M.I.A., is even more fascinating as a person than she is as an artist. Daughter of a leader of the Tamil Tigers, an ethnic Sri Lankan minority that started a civil … Continue reading →

The trailer has hints of “Crossroads,” that Ralph Macchio/Walter Hill classic about looking for a lost Robert Johnson blue classic. This is about that preoccupation of hedonistic hipsters, vinyl collecting. And it looks cute. Opens in Oct.

Vita Sackville-West was upper class, pronounced “kloss,” to the core, a celebrated socialite and successful author. Virginia Woolf was a legend in the making, one of the great writers of the 20th century. Period piece. Torrid gay romance. “Vita & … Continue reading →

The nature of memory, its organization and how we hang onto recollections of lost loved ones is what “306 Hollywood” is about. It’s an almost insufferably esoteric documentary made by two siblings, dissecting, digging and reconstructive the life of their … Continue reading →

It’s no stretch to think of “Orange is the New Black” star Taylor Schilling as a kidnapping victim who has little trouble turning the tables on her captor. She plays native cunning well, and carries herself, even in a show … Continue reading →

Little Joan Marie Larkin saw the rock quartets on TV in the 60s and early 70s, and decided she just HAD to have a Sears Silvertone electric guitar for Christmas. “I can’t be the only girl who wants to do … Continue reading →

It’s hard not to oversell “Smallfoot,” the new bigfoot musical from Warners Animation. Because words like “joyous” and “profound” (almost) leap to mind at several points in this Warners Smart/Pixar Heart comedy. Yeah, you’ve seen the trailers, maybe shrugged. Maybe … Continue reading →