I’ll start my review for Wonderstruck like this: If Wonderstruck doesn’t get a nomination for best picture this year then something is horribly wrong. It’s hard to imagine — and I haven’t yet seen — another 2017 film that equals or tops it. Todd Haynes, a director known for bringing queer cinema to the mainstream…
The Coen Brothers. Paul Thomas Anderson. Quentin Tarantino. When you think of great American directors who defined the first decade of the new millennium, these are a few of the usual suspects. When we reflect upon the current decade, it would be unwise to neglect the rise of an unusual directorial talent: James Franco. No…
The sentimental struggles of the self-doubting artist are at the gooey center of Michelle Figlarz’s Paris-set short Absinthe, a viewing of which could benefit from a few shots of the green liquor to wash away the corny aftertaste. The story is concerned with wayward Simon (Larry Cech, “90 Minutes of the Fever”), whose passion for…
To describe what breed of horror movie Somebody’s Darling is would be a spoiler in itself. Suffice to say, it’s small-scale, slow-burning, strange and sometimes surreal. It’s also very good. The setting is Williamsburg University, in 2006. History student Sarah (Jessa Settle, “Accidentally Engaged”) and her bitchy buddies arrive at a frat party and find…
As the year ends and holidays approach, more and more Oscar bait gets churned out for Academy consideration. Lost in this glut is the release of lesser-known foreign films that get quickly shoveled into American obscurity after getting viewed by a privileged select few. Lost in Paris, sadly, will likely become of those undiscovered gems….
Martin McDonagh’s (“Seven Psychopaths”) Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a mix of black (and politically incorrect) comedy and heartfelt drama that takes us on a wild, mostly improbable but highly entertaining ride. Set in the fictional town of Ebbing, Missouri, Frances McDormand (“Burn After Reading”), who carries the film in one of her best…
Subjects can be covered extensively from many angles and the character and attitude of a specific time or place can be lost in translation; luckily that this is not the case with 12th and Clairmount. The long hot summer of 1967 would culminate in 159 race riots across the United States, with Detroit, Michigan home…
