Can we start by all agreeing that Ophelia is the least interesting female character in the entire Shakespearean canon? The very qualities that make her an important icon for feminists… Continue reading "Ophelia (McCarthy, 2018)"
Spider-Man: Far From Home has something that has been increasingly hard to find in the Marvel Cinematic Universe he last few years: fun. From its winking opening scene of a… Continue reading "Spider-Man: Far From Home (Watts, 2019)"
Emanuel is the sort of reverential documentary that is pointless to criticize yet hardly allows for ambivalent praise. At the root of my ambivalence, I suspect, is the age-old difficulty… Continue reading "Emanuel (2019)"
Before Stonewall is being restored and reissued. Viewers in North Carolina may have to wait until August to see it in theaters, or they can get a rental from First… Continue reading "Before Stonewall (Schiller, 1985)"
For those who don’t know Shakespeare, or only know him superficially, the title “All is True” may sound more like an assertion than an inside joke. The film implies, without… Continue reading "All is True (Branagh, 2019)"
Late Night is a film so affable and so relentlessly competent that I spent a full day after screening it trying to convince myself that I liked it. I didn’t.… Continue reading "Late Night (2019)"
The Sower is not a great film, but it is so much better than any summary of its tawdry premise could make it sound that I’m tempted to just give… Continue reading "The Sower (Francen, 2017)"
In the Spring of 1982, I switched sections of my high-school English class. Bored by the lackadaisical pace of American educational learning and being (I realize in retrospect) a bit… Continue reading "Les Misérables (Shankland, 2019)"
One can’t study J. R. R. Tolkien for very long without encountering his preface to The Lord of the Rings in which he rejects forcefully any interpretations of that work… Continue reading "Tolkien (Karukoski, 2019)"
Faith, Hope & Love unites two of the most formulaic genres in today’s movies: the romantic comedy and the “Christian” film. Given that starting point, the film shouldn’t work nearly… Continue reading "Faith, Hope & Love (Englert and Krantz, 2019)"
