Monthly Archives: January 2022

Get all teary-eyed, if you must. And not out of sympathy for the gratuitous crotch shots, either. Feb. 4.

Dark, twisted and a tad bizarre, the film adaptation of the French farce “Dear Mother” goes places no Hollywood production would dare. Any movie whose entire later acts concern the efforts of her self-absorbed son, his wife and his veterinarian … Continue reading →

You can see some of the themes and interests of future Oscar-nominated writer-director (“Minari”) Lee Isaac Chung in his debut feature, a quiet immersion in the open wound that is post-genocide Rwanda. A film festival darling of 2007, “Munyurangabo” takes … Continue reading →

The Brazilian lockdown drama “The Pink Cloud” can pretty much be reduced to the simplest mathematics of all. How much credit do you give this film, finished in 2019, for “anticipating” the pandemic and what life under a long lockdown … Continue reading →

Sentimental and sympathetically-acted, actor-director Chiwetel Ejiofor’s “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind” immerses us in Third World subsistence farming and the struggle just to have enough to eat in poor, corrupt countries in the developing world. This Around the World … Continue reading →

A pasty-faced, red ball-capped, pickup truck-driving Tennessean dumps a truckload of red rubber balls into a river, drives down the road, removes a sniper rifle with a Confederate flag sticker on it, and pops those calls from a great distance … Continue reading →

The planetary reboot of the pandemic — thanks, anti-vaxxers/anti-maskers/morons — means that most major movie releases have been yanked off the schedule of what is already a traditionally slow month at the box office. “The 355” and “Scream” and “Old … Continue reading →

A mystery torn from the pages of Scandinavian history, “Margrete: Queen of the North” becomes a taut and tense tale in the hands of Danish director Charlotte Sieling. The filmmaker takes us back to an age when the mechanical clock … Continue reading →

You’re allowed to be confused by what unfolds in the mix-and-match Italian romance “Four to Dinner.” Not that you need my permission. If you’ve watched it, you got there all on your own. It’s a thought exercise tale about two … Continue reading →

The lone feature film by American documentarian James Blue is a fascinating cinematic time capsule, a glimpse at the last days of French colonial Algeria. As you might expect from a filmmaker who worked mostly on non-fiction films, it’s a … Continue reading →