As the film begins, contemporary dance instructor Elena (Greta Grineviciute) is about to begin teaching a class for Deaf children when she meets Dovydas (Kestutis Cicenas), there to serve as a sign language interpreter between her and her pupils. From the moment they meet, there is an undeniable spark between the two. Over the course … Read more
But I digress. “Unfrosted” doesn’t make much of anything from its subject. It doesn’t care enough to communicate, even in the most basic and lighthearted sense, why it exists, which is something you’d never wonder about, had the movie been overseen by somebody like Joe Dante (“Gremlins”) or Adam McKay (back when he was making films like … Read more
In “Wildcat,” O’Connor and the real people from her life appear as characters from her stories as they blossom in her mind. But while it’s admirable that the script tries to deviate from the episodic, chronological constraints of the traditional biopic, these sequences end up feeling distracting and distancing. Most feature Laura Linney as both O’Connor’s real-life mother, Regina, and a series of bluntly racist Southern stereotypes. Among the other supporting players in the film’s impressively deep … Read more
Based on Tom Wolfe’s 1998 novel of the same name but translated into the 21st century, “A Man in Full” focuses on the Southern-fried Croker (Daniels), who lives lavishly like every other wealthy business tycoon, real or fictional: He flies around in private jets, has a much younger wife (Sarah Jones), and, most importantly, bleeds money like the bank isn’t … Read more
Aza (Isabela Merced) is a timid teen with OCD, habitually finding herself in intrusive thought spirals concerning infection and the human microbiome, feeling like an endless Russian doll of a person, unable to find herself in the layers. Juggling her mental health alongside the grief of her late father and the angst of feeling misunderstood … Read more
Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Connelly lead a stellar thriller based on the acclaimed science fiction novel. PLOT: The series will follow Jason Dessen, a physicist, professor, and family man who — one night while walking home on the streets of Chicago — is abducted into an alternate version of his life. Wonder quickly turns to … Read more
Though Owen’s insecurities could be interpreted as being related to gender dysphoria, while watching “I Saw the TV Glow,” I also kept returning back to Jordan Peele’s “Us.” That film uses an earlier decade, the 1980s, and its reductive politics as a launching point to render the horrific economic legacy of Reagan’s America through the eyes of a … Read more
But it makes for a more pleasing story, doesn’t it? That’s what the team behind the Peacock adaptation of the novel counts on throughout its six episodes—a sobering, haunting depiction of the crimes of the Shoah, peppered with just enough hope and romance to feel bittersweet, rather than torturous. For all its period detail and … Read more
The opening shot, which goes on for quite a while, is key. The point of view is that of a pair of eyes looking up from the ground, into the bare branches of a forest’s trees and the clear sky above them. It’s a moving shot. Those who recollect Carl Theodor Dreyer’s “Vampyr,” and the … Read more
The film’s title rings as a warning through every action taken, every crossed path, every “accident” encountered. When Koffi lands in Congo, he is unable to reach his sister, who is supposed to pick him up from the airport. Left to their own devices, when they obtain a car, they travel to the mines to … Read more