Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice had a working title of First Impressions. Although she did not ultimately use that title for any of her novels, it remained a running theme… Continue reading "Modern Persuasion (Appel & Lisecki, 2020)"
The beginning and ending of Another Round are very strong. Thomas Vinterberg’s portrait of an alcoholic culture is quite effective at varying its tone — demonstrating the highs as well… Continue reading "Another Round (Vinterberg, 2020)"
James Erskine’s Billie is a little gem of a documentary, more oral history than biography. That is arrives streaming this week with little fanfare is mildly surprising but entirely shocking.… Continue reading "Billie (Erskine, 2020)"
The Croods: A New Age unfolds like an American football game where a perennial 5-11 team (I’m looking at you, Washington) grabs a first quarter lead. For a short while,… Continue reading "The Croods: A New Age (Crawford, 2020)"
Alex Gibney is the rare documentarian who usually ends up convincing me regardless of whether or not I start on the same side of his arguments. Taxi to the Dark… Continue reading "Crazy, Not Insane (Gibney, 2020)"
Like its protagonists, Han Van Meegeren and Joseph Piller, The Last Vermeer is unassuming. Its subject — the looting of European art by the Nazis — was covered more dramatically… Continue reading "The Last Vermeer (Friedkin, 2020)"
Joan of Arc is titled Jeanne in its French release, and for the first thirty seconds or so, I thought I had popped in a screener for Dumont’s 2017 (I-don’t-know-what-else-to-call-it-except-maybe-a-cult-classic)… Continue reading "Joan of Arc (Dumont, 2019)"
Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist is an engaging and interesting film even if you are not a horror aficionado. I’m not a horror fan, but The Exorcist… Continue reading "Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist (Phillipe, 2019)"
In a video discussion provided to critics with the advanced screener of Hillbilly Elegy, director Ron Howard admitted to having trouble finding the through story in J. D. Vance’s popular… Continue reading "Hillbilly Elegy (Howard, 2020)"
At several moments during Regina King’s One Night in Miami, I found myself thinking the film was working better than I expected. I kept waiting for its rickety structure of… Continue reading "One Night in Miami (King, 2020)"
