Monthly Archives: September 2023

On the film festival circuit, one sees a lot of indie films that invite us to appreciate them via the literary practice of “biographical criticism.” A festival-goer learns of what the filmmaker’ went through to get their story on screen, … Continue reading →

Awards season awards bait from Netflix? “Nyad,” about the swimmer turned broadcaster turned AARP-aged “one last hurrah” woman who attempted to swim from the U.S. to Cuba, will play in theaters in October before moving to Netflix later in the … Continue reading →

There’s a “Nefarious” vibe to this Sept. 22 release, with a murderous chuch shooter (McCord) telling her interrogator (Cain), with a “Hell is real” and “deal with the Devil” message. Sept. 22 in theaters, streaming shortly thereafter.

“Friday Night Plan” is a genial but utterly generic “get-to-the-big-party” teen comedy, a slow-footed Indian version of a universal formula that was never limited to just Hollywood, which has taken many a swipe at it over the decades (“Can’t Hardly … Continue reading →

“Borderline” is an awful, amateurish “psychosexual thriller” that lurches between straight-up sexual exploitation and heavy-handed downward-spiral-of-drug-addiction cliches. There have been good pictures with this common title, so don’t confuse them. Rich Mallery is the writer-director of this leering “let no … Continue reading →

“Rotting in the Sun” is the most sexually explicit gay missing person hunt in the history of cinema. It’s a dark, deadpan comedy that isn’t really funny, but whose premise is the the quintessence of “permission to laugh.” A suicidal … Continue reading →

A rich and powerful patriarch faces the end with a household full of women scheming against him in “The Origin of Evil,” a clever and twisty French thriller that’s a little bit “King Lear” and a little bit more “Sucession.” … Continue reading →

“Outlaw Johnny Black” takes its title from “The Outlaw Josey Wales,” its first gag from “A Fistful of Dollars,” its hero’s wardrobe from “Django Unchained,” its plot from “Buck and the Preacher” (sort of) and its cast from a pool … Continue reading →

I was attending my first New York Film Festival in 1990 when the Chinese Cinema Revolution reached America’s shores. The film was Zhang Yimou and Yang Fengliang’s overwrought, elegaic and allegorial “Ju Dou,” and it gave much of the world … Continue reading →