In “Italian Studies,” the wonderful Vanessa Kirby is stranded in a sea of nothingness. This is the kind of pretentious independent film that gives the art form a bad name. It’s intended to be a surreal and hypnotic dive into the head of an amnesiac, but is akin to watching paint dry for a mind-numbing 78 minutes.
Read moreThe 10 Best Pixar Movies
Pixar hasn’t just reinvented animation for the 21st century, they’ve expanded it forward to a space and time where the adult/child line is blurred and the creativity on display is astonishingly rendered. You forget you’re watching a film primarily aimed at kids. You feel like a child again, full of innocence, full of joy, discovering a new world that previously seemed so out of reach. Over the past 25 years, Pixar has given us so much more than 15 timeless movies; they’ve brought us the ability to succumb to a universe full of magic and stories that hit the truest notes possible. It’s hard to imagine a cinematic landscape without Pixar, and the significance they represent cannot be underestimated. Their effect on regular, live-action movies is self-evident. They’ve pushed boundaries and forced other filmmakers to think outside the box. Here’s to another 25 great years.
Read more‘In the Heights’ Bombs at the Box-Office
The 25 Best Animated Movies of the Last 25 Years
With the release of Pixar’s underwhelming (yes, I’ve seen it) 24th feature, “Luca,” there’s reason enough to look back on not just the former glory days of the Disney-backed animated company, but animation in general. I do feel like we’ve hit a standstill with the medium. There has been no groundbreaker like “Toy Story” or “Spirited Away” such as in the previous decades.
Read moreHow Has Las Vegas Changed from the City Depicted in ‘Casino' (1995)?
In many films that have made an enduring mark on the wider culture, the resonance of the plot often comes from the richness of the source material that the movie plunders. The very best movies often attempt to capture a specific and fleeting moment in time, paying tribute to a moment in society and culture that reverberates with the present while simultaneously feeling like a distant eon ago.
Read more‘In the Heights’ … [Review]
Don’t pay attention to the rave reviews director John Chu’s sentimental “In the Heights” has been getting. Ever heard of virtue signaling, yeah, this film’s backers seem to be doing just that, in droves. Unless, of course, you’re open and willing to spend an unnecessarily bloated 2 hours and 22 minutes watching boisterously inclusive dancing, and nothing else, in the streets of New York City’s Washington Heights.
Read moreVenice: Jane Campion’s ‘The Power of The Dog’ Confirmed to An Already Stacked 2021 Lineup
‘Censor’ … [Capsule]
Want to know how underwhelming this year’s all-digital Midnight Madness program at the Sundance Film Festival was? Prano Bailey-Bond’s feature-length directorial debut, “Censor,” was the best reviewed feature of the bunch.
Read more‘Holler’: Winter’s Bone Rip-Off Feels Generic and Inauthentic [Capsule]
Writer-director Nicole Riegel’s “Holler,” shot in beautifully grainy 16mm, has a few very pronounced influences at its disposal.
Read more‘Asia’: Tribeca-Winning Film Deals With ALS in Stark, But Confounding Fashion [Review]
Terminal illness dramas have been done to damn-near ad nauseum at the movies. Ever since 1970’s “Love Story” became a worldwide sensation, Hollywood’s been trying to tug at our heartstrings with an insufferable amount of replicants — best of all was the 1983 weepy “Terms of Endearment,” which also ended up winning the Best Picture Oscar.
Read more‘Sudden Move’: Steven Soderbergh Continues His Prolific Streak [Trailer]
These days, filmmaker Steven Soderbergh seems to be churning out movies at a rate of one per year. It’s easy to forget that he announced his “retirement” in 2013. The man is definitely not retired anymore, as yet another one of his films is set to premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival this month.
Read moreDirector’s Fortnight Announces its 2021 Lineup
It’s useless to complain that the just-announced Directors’ Fortnight lineup is lacking in big names. I’ve met organizer Paolo Moretti a number of times and I can tell you that he and his selection committee work day and night to deliver a great lineup for cinephiles at Cannes every year.
Read more‘All Light Everywhere’: Ambitious Doc About Surveillance is a Hodge-Podge of Ideas That Refuse to Gel Together [Capsule]
I caught “All Light, Everywhere” at this past January’s Sundance Film Festival. The reason why I didn’t bother writing anything about it is because, quite simply, it isn’t a very good essay film.
Read more‘F9’ Will, Shockingly, Be Screened at the Cannes Film Festival
‘Conjuring 3’ Tops Tepid Box-Office as U.S. Audiences Not Entirely Ready to go Back to Theaters
“The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It,” which opened in theaters alongside an HBO Max steaming exclusive, nabbed a decent $24 million debut this weekend at the North American box-office — the third best debut since theaters reopened.
Read moreCannes 2021: Mia Hansen-Løve’s ‘Bergman Island’ Lands at IFC Films, Trailer Released
Mia Hansen-Løve had a hard time with critics as the yet-undistributed-in-the-U.S. ”Maya” felt like a minor and disappointing work in her, otherwise, ever-growing career as a director.
Read more‘Aline: The Voice Of Love’ is the Unofficial Céline Dion Biopic We Didn't Know We Needed
The Cannes Film Festival announced its lineup yesterday morning and one of the more perplexing films playing out of competition will no doubt be “Aline: The Voice Of Love,” a biopic about Céline Dion. Just to make things even more authentic, the film was shot and produced in Dion’s native Quebec and her star-studded rise from child star to world icon is at the center of the story.
Read moreCannes 2021’s Surprises, and Snubs
First things first, I am absolutely puzzled by some on Twitter who have said that the Cannes Film Festival’s 2021 lineup is, on-paper, underwhelming. Are these folks actual cinephiles?
Read moreWill David O. Russell Get ‘Canceled’?
The director’s name was trending late yesterday afternoon after Taylor Swift was cast in his new as-yet-untitled film. Swift joined a stacked cast of actors that included Margot Robbie, Christian Bale, Rami Malek, John David Washington, Mike Myers, Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Rock, Michael Shannon, Timothy Olyphant, and Zoe Saldana.
Read moreCannes 2021 Lineup Revealed: Anderson, Carax, Verhoeven, Baker, Farhadi and More
A roundup to come …
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