For some reason, 2019 seems to be the year of actors stepping into the director’s chair. Whether it is on limited circuits like Idris Elba’s “Yardie,” on streaming services like Amy Poehler’s “Wine Country,” or breaking out into the mainstream like Olivia Wilde’s delightful “Booksmart,” we are starting to witness an unusual spike in opportunities…
Cold Blood, by writer-director Frédéric Petitjean, is the assemblage of a lot of good ideas that belong in different movies into one 90-minute feature that couldn’t possibly hope to explore them all properly. What we’re left with is the semblance of movie, the component parts of which are so at odds with each other that…
Goodbyes are at the forefront of Pixar’s tacked-on Toy Story 4, the studio’s fourth sequel in as many years and its flagship franchise’s first installment in almost a decade. There are parting glances throughout, the movie is book-ended by sendoffs, and one new character’s entire existence hinges on a gag in which he tries to…
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…
The tragic ramifications of rhino poaching are examined in touching detail by writer/director Toby Wosskow, whose 17-minute dramatic short Sides of a Horn looks mournfully at the human players in this horrific conflict that has pushed an ancient species to the brink of extinction. With little time to establish the situation and develop a plot…
“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…
On paper, Changeland has several of the components to success: The movie is set in scenic Thailand, it teases the promise of an emergent bromance between estranged friends Brandon (Seth Green, “Sex Drive,” who is pulling triple duty as director, writer and actor) and Dan (Breckin Meyer, “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past”), and it enjoys the…
