With an event as significant as the COVID-19 pandemic, it can feel like a race to the finish line to create art inspired by this monumental point in history. And while some might give the side eye to a movie like Together — which follows the lives of a husband, wife and their son through…
Robert Schwartzman’s The Argument begins when Jack (Dan Fogler, “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald”) invites some friends over to celebrate his girlfriend Lisa (Emma Bell, “Final Destination 5”) getting a proper acting role. Things go awry when she invites her co-star Paul (Tyler James Williams, “Detroit”) over as well, without Jack’s knowledge, and the…
There are sometimes actors that embody a word so perfectly, they might as well be the textbook example of it. But when it comes to Bill Nighy, he straddles two particular words — elegant and odd. Even in his bolder roles (e.g., the aging rocker Billy Mack in “Love Actually”) Nighy never loses his poise,…
“What love actually is, is the experience that someone else is all right exactly the way they are.” — Werner Erhard Noah Baumbach’s (“The Meyerowitz Stories”) Marriage Story is a penetrating look at the spiraling effect of divorce American style on those involved, one that radiates compassion for its beleaguered characters Nicole (Scarlett Johansson, “Avengers:…
Rob Grant’s Harpoon is another entry in the perennial argumentative-people-stranded-on-a-boat sub-genre, and it’s a cut above the average. It is, however, a stranger to subtlety, and juvenile at times, but it’s never boring and consistently bold in its narrative choices. Take the opening scene for example. Richard (Christopher Gray, “The Mist” TV series) storms over…
“Jay Chandrasekhar helms this wacky vehicle with all the conviction of a defective police siren . . . feels more like an excuse for Chandrasekhar and his fratboy Broken Lizard comedy troupe players to merge and serve up their pet project just to kill some time.” — Frank Ochieng’s critical take on 2001’s “Super Troopers”…
In Una, the powerful screen adaptation of David Harrower’s play “Blackbird” about the sexual abuse of a thirteen-year-old girl, Australian director Benedict Andrews does what has become increasingly uncommon in modern cinema — he makes us think. While it may be uncomfortable to look outside of the reassuring categories of victim and victimizer, Andrews asks…
