Monthly Archives: August 2021

“Ema,” the latest film from Chilean director Pablo Larraín, is about interpretative modern dance, so naturally it’s “open to interpretation.” The director of “Jackie” and “Neruda” has conjured up a fever dream of tragedy, the “monster” who feels responsible for … Continue reading →

Ady Barkan first gained national notoriety during the 2018 midterm elections, campaigning cross country in Republican-held Congressional districts, going to war over a single issue — health care, and the GOP’s efforts to “destabilize the entire health care system” to … Continue reading →

Creepy looking head-games horror, this festival darling comes our way from Shudder on August 26. https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#search/Mosquito/CqMvqmWTjKtDqMkHFSLVfNMdVMGbNKZFzgFSMnjrtRwNzSFZGxGsJdjbDksnHZVWGdfjcBcNxRL?projector=1

“Geez & Ann” is a high school to college romance among young Indonesian Muslims, a movie whose sharp production values can’t compensate for the woefully incomplete love affair it tries to capture. To Western eyes, at least, this kiss-less, years-long … Continue reading →

This September release, about miners ordered to tunnel beneath German trenches to blow them up covers similar ground to “Tunnel Rats” and “Beneath Hill 60.” Grim business, good ground for a war drama, with class etc. playing a role.

Richard Schiff made a good Jerry Wexler in “Ray,” playing the R&B fanatic record producer and Atlantic Records co-founder earlier in his career. But Marc Maron’s take on him — the voice, the look (skinnier, yes), the “Do what the … Continue reading →

A piece of Aussie lore that evolved into slang becomes the title of “Buckley’s Chance,” a lad-lost-in-the-Outback drama that takes a bloody long time to get that lad lost in the Outback. It’s about Ridley (Milan Burch), a New York … Continue reading →

“Raging Fire” is a Hong Kong cops go rogue thriller, par for the formula course for writer-director Benny Chan, whose resume is filled with its close kin — “New Police Story,” “Heroic Duo,” “Gen-X Cops” and “Gen-Y Cops.” But it … Continue reading →

In this age of Charlottesvilles, here and abroad, of “Jo Jo Rabbit,” “The Hitler Channel” and Trumpism, the world is “beyond the point where people have lost the meaning of (Adolf) Hitler,” one of the chorus of experts in the … Continue reading →

We all knew Aretha Franklin’s story would make an entertaining bio-musical, and “Respect” doesn’t disappoint. It’s as uplifting and ready-made for sing-alongs as any recent bio-pic, mostly because it’s just like them. Tracey Scott Wilson (“Fosse/Verdon” ) is the credited … Continue reading →