Claire McCarthy’s Ophelia opens with the titular character telling, via voice-over, that she feels it is time that we hear her narrative told from her perspective. This is a promising notion. Many of Shakespeare’s supporting women warrant narratives on their own, and the veracious success that was 2016’s “Lady Macbeth” proves just how potent they…
“From the ashes a fire shall be woken, a light from the shadows shall spring.” — J.R.R. Tolkien A chronicle of a relationship that is no longer nurturing, The Souvenir follows Julie (Honor Swinton Byrne, “I Am Love”), a young film student in London during the 1980s as she navigates to adulthood through a minefield…
Weddings are to romantic comedies what CGI-heavy final acts are to the superhero genre. They’re the place where emotions culminate, heartfelt speeches are delivered, and true love (almost) always wins out. Part of the reason they’re a natural fit is that these are the days that we start planning from a young age. I can…
“Fuck your TV. I’ve got my T-Rex.” “It’s OK in the swamp, especially if you’re the number one toad.” Leto, written and directed by Kirill Serebrennikov (“The Student”), has received much buzz because of the director’s house arrest — apparently because he is no friend of Vladimir Putin. It has also been criticized for not…
Everyone should be able to digest a charming love story, right? How can one resist an urban romancer featuring attractive lovebirds coming from different sides of the tracks, the energetic rush of city life and the unsuspecting hands of fate? Well, this is the proposed premise for director Ry Russo-Young’s (“Before I Fall”) young adult…
When 38-year-old Fred Flarsky (Seth Rogen, “The Disaster Artist”), a sloppy and unkempt-looking journalist, falls for Charlotte Field (Charlize Theron, “Tully”), a highly sophisticated, intelligent, and political savvy politician, we know that we must be in fantasyland or in a Jonathan Levine (“The Night Before”) comedy. While Levine’s Long Shot challenges believability, there are enough…
Isn’t It Romantic is extremely self aware, breaking the fourth wall with more frequency than “Deadpool.” It knows the tropes that define the rom-com genre and the rules at play. Thus, there is a desire to establish itself as something different. The problem here is — it can’t. It functions on the complexity level of…
