Here’s my review of Todd Phillips’ “Joker,” which I saw at the TIFF earlier in September. It’s a fascinating, dark and despairing arthouse movie that also happens to have been made by a big studio. Why are critics complaining that this could spark violence by way of “incels”? Because they can’t handle the truth. What is the truth? That “Joker” is a film mirroring our own society, and it dares us to look at ourselves in the mirror. The parallels to today’s world are there — societal alienation has never felt more current than it does today. Joker aka. Arthur Fleck’s situation could attest to 21st-century anxieties; his descent into madness is immaculately horrifying because it feels all too real and anchored up by present-day realities and tensions. The film comes out at a time when the country feels at a crossroads between civility and chaos. It’s understandable that many critics are calling the film dangerous in its, supposed, call to arms and revolution, but the fact that this movie is actually sparking panic in people must mean that it has hit a societal nerve, which renders it an indelible statement of current-day socio-political anxieties.
Read more‘Lucy in the Sky’ Aims for the Stars But Can’t Even Achieve Liftoff [Review]
Noah Hawley’s “Lucy in the Sky” turned out to be one of the big critical. disappointments at the Toronto International. Hawley (FX’s “Fargo”) is no doubt a man of visionary talents who has earned the right to make his feature directing debut ‘Lucy,’ but by golly, his film falls completely flat.
Read more‘The Laundromat' is Delightfully Amusing, But Minor Soderbergh [Review]
The infamous Panama Papers are tackled by wizard director Steven Soderbergh in “The Laundromat,” a sprawling, multi-layered account of what exactly was exposed. Frequent Soderbergh collaborator Scott Z. Burns adapts Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative journalist Jake Bernstein's Secrecy World with the help of stalwart acting from Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman, Jeffrey Wright, and Antonio Banderas.
Read more‘Hustlers’ is a Stylized, Well-Intentioned But Silly Female Version of ‘Goodfellas' [Review]
“Hurt people hurt people….the whole world is a strip club…sleep is where and when it happens.”
Lorene Scafaria‘s “Hustlers” rides and dies by the morally dubious motto above.
Read more‘Where’s My Roy Cohn?': Doc Tackles One of the 20th Century’s Most Feared and Despised Men [Review]
Matt Tyrnauer’s “Where’s My Roy Cohn” is an absorbing doc on one of the most brooding figures of 20th century America.
Read more‘Diego Maradona’: Cannes Doc Focuses on Controversial Athlete [Capsule]
The hotly-anticipated documentary “Diego Maradona” will be arriving on HBO this fall. Director Asif Kapadia’s chronicle of the life and times of the controversial soccer/football athlete was seen by yours truly at the Cannes Film Festival this past May, although it was sadly not reviewed.
Read more‘Corporate Animals’: Demi Moore’s Unfunny Performance Hinders This Wild Cannibal Office Horror-Comedy [Review]
Many attempt to mix the outwardly-delicious peanut butter and chocolate tone of comedy and horror, and there are many good ones—“Shaun of the Dead” “Cabin In The Woods,” “Get Out,” the “Evil Dead” films, etc.— but it’s actually a deceptively tricky genre hybrid to get right. For all the classics, much like horror, there’s a lot of cheap, garish junk that gets churned out each year that hurts the overall quality score.
Read more‘Ad Astra’ is Director James Gray's Challenging Space Opera [Review]
James Gray’s films have a classicist approach that one can easily categorize them as conventional, but don’t be fooled by what you’re seeing, as it is incredibly hard to pull off what Gray did in “Lost City of Z” and, especially, “Two Lovers” (his two best movies). The near mythical themes of those films have given him an auteur-ial stamp, a distinguishable trait for a director that seems to be obsessed with old-school Hollywood storytelling and the romanticism that comes with it.
Read more‘Marriage Story': Noah Baumbach's Most Personal and Ambitious Movie [Review]
Movies about divorce between parents have been around for ages, the same old cliches and tropes that come with the territory used over and over again. And yet, the most acclaimed movie of the festival season is just that.
Read more‘Official Secrets’: Keira Knightley Can’t Save Gavin Hood’s Political Whistleblower Thriller [Review]
[Originally written at the Sundance Film Festival in January. “Official Secrets” is being released in theaters this Friday]
Read more‘Good Boys' is a Surprisingly Safe and Pedantic Movie About Potty-Mouthed Gen-Z [Review]
I have been in Montreal for the better part of the summer and, for one reason or another, “Good Boys” was not screened for the press here. So, after, surprisingly, topping the box-office for two straight weekends, I figured that I probably needed to watch this R-rated movie about potty-mouthed tweens.
Read more‘Brittany Runs A Marathon' Review: Jillian Bell Shines, Even When the Script Fumbles
When it does focus on its main character, plus-sized 27-year-old woman Brittany (Jillian Bell) the movie is nothing short of a pleasure to behold. Much of the film’s initial success is carefully stitched together by its debut writer-director Paul Downs Colaizzo’s and Bell’s star-making performance, as a millennial deciding to take charge of her life and lose the fat.
Read more‘Untitled Amazing Johnathan Documentary’ Is A Riveting, Twisted Examination Of Non-Fiction Filmmaking [Review]
‘Where'd You Go, Bernadette' is an Honorable Misstep for Richard Linklater
The embargo has lifted for the latest Linklater and, well, it doesn’t look too good. A 50 on Metacritic and a 22% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Read more‘Blinded by the Light' Review: Springsteen-Themed Musical Is Sappy but Crowd-Pleasing Filmmaking
Bruce Springsteen is a God amongst Gods in my world. I worship at the altar of “The Boss.” So, of course, I had a clear-cut bias going into Gurinder Chadha’s “ Blinded By the Light,” and, yes, shockingly, I absolutely adored every minute of its un-shamefully sappy 2 hours.
Read more‘Cold Case Hammarskjöld’ Review: CIA, AIDS, and South Africa Clash in the Most Shocking Doc You Will See This Year
Mads Brügger’s “Cold Case Hammarskjöld” follows the story of United Nations secretary-general Dag Hammarskjöld and the mystery behind his death following a mysterious plane crash in 1961.
Read more‘After the Wedding' Fails Miserably at Depicting Hierarchical Class Divide in America [Review]
Bart Freundlich’s ”After The Wedding” is a Sundance-premiered family saga that also happens to be a remake of Susanne Bier’s Oscar-nominated Danish film.
Read more‘Luce': Julius Onah’s Powerfully Constructed Psychodrama Of Race & Social Politics Is Brilliantly Tense [Review]
Directed and co-written by Julias Onah, “Luce” was the best movie I saw at Sundance 2019. It’s a psychodrama starring Naomi Watts, Octavia Spencer, Kevin Harrison Jr., and Tim Roth.
Read more‘The Nightingale' Is A Self-Indulgent Mess [IFFBoston/Review]
“The Nightingale,” director Jennifer Kent’s sophomore effort, following “The Babadook,” desperately wants to be delve into the white man’s history of violence, particularly towards women.
Read more‘Love, Antosha' is An Immensely Personal Doc Tribute to Anton Yelchin [Review]
Anton Yelchin was only blossoming as a young actor when he tragically died of a freak accident back in June of 2016. As a performer, it’s so easy talking about his talents, because he was unequivocally brilliant and intensely into his art. It has to be said, but his career was mostly filled with supporting turns, and some lead roles, but he always found a way to steal the show. The last time we saw Yelchin on-screen, he stole scenes from the highly talented Anya Taylor-Jones and Olivia Cooke in “Thoroughbreds,” a pitch-black crime drama in which his drug-dealing smack-talker turned out to be the moral compass of the film. That was the beauty of Anton, he always loved to choose bizarre characters and fully flesh them out to make them feel humane.
Read more
As expected, Snyder's latest is being torn apart by TIFF attendees. No mercy given. The film, which had its world premiere this evening, is being called by some one of the worst movies to ever premiere at the festival.