Is Le Mans ’66 (also known as “Ford v Ferrari” in the U.S.) about racing? It’s a question comparable to “Is ‘Jaws’ about a shark?” or “Is ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’ about espionage?” Certainly racing features in the film, leading up to, as it does, the 1966 Le Mans Grand Prix, as well as other…
If The Post was little more than a piece of agitprop beating the drums for the value of a free press in a democracy, it would more than justify its reason for being. The fact that it is so much more is a testament to the skills of director Steven Spielberg and the talents of…
For her fun fictionalized memoir of sorts, Greta Gerwig has painted a coming-of-age tale almost entirely in shades of grey. Lady Bird is the writer/director’s gentle, through passionately prickly look at the haze that lies just beyond adolescence, with Saoirse Ronan (“The Grand Budapest Hotel”) playing Christine, the also titular protagonist who must navigate the…
A sensitive loner goes undercover to infiltrate a group of skinheads and finds he may have more in common with the white supremacists he’s investigating than his FBI colleagues. Or “Donnie Brasco” meets “The Believer.” Or “Point Break” meets “American History X.” Or “Reservoir Dogs” meets “Romper Stomper.” I couldn’t help but think of other…
“Is an intelligent being likely to be much more than a large-scale manufacturer of misunderstanding?” — Philip Roth, The Counterlife With Indignation, James Schamus makes his directorial debut from his own adaptation of Philip Roth’s 2008 book of the same name. Schamus is most well known as the screenwriting and producing partner of Ang Lee,…
So the cinematic imagination is put to the ticklish test when two of the most iconic figureheads from the 70’s meet on an impromptu spur of the moment. The Oval Office handshake involving the beleaguered minds of rock-n-roll legend Elvis Aaron Presley and presidential enigma Richard Milhouse Nixon is the off-kilter subject matter of director…
