Rodeo is presented with an anthropological curiosity and an artistic attention to detail that almost get the film across the finish line. The attempts to embed the examination of gearheads… Continue reading "Rodeo (Quivoron, 2022)"
Nana Mensah’s Queen of Glory combines elements of three familiar stories: the immigrant experience, the grief experience, and the anthropological look at a religious community. Mensah plays Sarah Obeng, a… Continue reading "Queen of Glory (Mensah, 2022)"
Right about the time that André tells his daughter Emmanuèle (Sophie Marceau) that he wants her help terminating his post-stroke life on his own terms, the plot of Everything Went… Continue reading "Everything Went Fine (Ozon, 2021)"
Alex (Kyle Allen) claims to be in training for a privatized expedition to Mars that will cause him, if selected, to leave everyone he knows on earth behind. His family… Continue reading "Space Oddity (Sedgwick, 2022)"
Those in a generous mood will probably call Last Sentinel a genre mashup, but I’m not altogether sure the film itself knows what it is going for. Part Waterworld, part… Continue reading "Last Sentinel (Toom, 2023)"
Your appreciation for and assessment of Amerikatsi may well depend upon whether your point of reference is Charlie Chaplin or Forrest Gump. There is no question that writer/director/star Michael A.… Continue reading "Amerikatsi (Goorjian, 2022)"
“They all want to be writers and none of them like to read…” A Little White Lie takes place at a fictional university where faculty think that having a J.D.… Continue reading "A Little White Lie (Maren, 2023)"
As I write this, there are four other reviews from Rotten Tomatoes certified critics of Esme, My Love. None of them (yes, I read all four) express confidence that they… Continue reading "Esme, My Love (Choy, 2022)"
Prison is a kind of boxing ring, Michal opines to Jan (Milan Ondrík). All life is a boxing ring. That sort of tell-don’t-show writing doesn’t necessarily disqualify a film from… Continue reading "Shadowplay (Bebjak, 2022)"
My film year was sandwiched by a pair of disappointments. It was marked on the front end by the release of The Batman, a reboot of a beloved character that… Continue reading "Living (Hermanus, 2022)"
