I’m thinking of a movie. It stars a man and a woman struggling against the elements to survive a vast, empty, lonesome, and perilous environment on their journey home. Oh, and it’s directed by someone with the last name of Cuarón. Anyone care to take a guess? If you guessed “Gravity,” you’d be correct. But…
There is no doubt that superfans of the hugely popular 90’s British rock band Oasis can confidently claim to knowing the intimate details behind one of the most explosive musical acts to come out of working-class Manchester, England. English filmmaker Mat Whitecross’ (“Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll”) revealing and roguish musical documentary Oasis:…
Occupied village. Crying babies. Mothers many. Babies doze. Japanese colony. Korean village. Woman leaves. Baby stays. Both cry. Off goes. Jap’s house. The opening scene of Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden leaves no room for blinking. That is the secret of its hypnotic pace swimmingly swinging from a contemplative eye which leaves it all to a…
Writer-director Barry Jenkins (“Medicine for Melancholy”) delves into a power-driven coming-of-age drama detailing the tremendous angst-ridden existence of an impoverished Miami-based gay black youth struggling with self-identity and self-worth in the unflinching and revealing drama Moonlight. Convincingly raw and roughly poignant, Moonlight pushes some psychologically and emotionally charged buttons in a gritty and unforgettable narrative…
Imagine if “Rear Window” were in motion, the fragmented but persistent yearning to see given (literal) added dynamism. What we glimpse through windows is always partial, but if viewed from a moving train the glimpse is even more fleeting. Then replace James Stewart in a wheelchair with Emily Blunt addled by alcohol and you have…
There’s certainly no accounting as to why Ben Affleck (“Gone Girl”) would choose this, The Accountant, a tepid and convoluted thriller to star in, but all I know is I wish I could deduct the two-plus hours I spent at the cinema to see it; time I will never get back in a refund next…
Dealing with the aftermath of a tragedy turns a once warm and ebullient family man into a solemn, withdrawn, and angry loner in Kenneth Lonergan’s (“Margaret”) bittersweet drama Manchester by the Sea, one of the best films of 2016. Set in the picturesque city of Manchester on Massachusetts’ north shore, cinematographer Jody Lee Lipes (“Martha…
