A film about two teenage girls navigating the streets of New York by themselves with little money or a place to stay is normally the breeding ground for melodrama. In the hands of director Eliza Hittman (“Beach Rats”) and remarkably natural performances by first time actors, Sidney Flanigan and Talia Ryder, however, the film Never…
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,…
“Every possible future points back to and is contained in this moment in time and space, and every possible past culminated in this moment” — Lawrence Tribe Loosely based on the 19th century novella of Friedrich de la Motte Fouque about an aquatic spirit who must marry a knight to gain a soul, but has…
Jenny Slate’s latest dram-rom-com vehicle, The Sunlit Night, seems like a bit of a rehash of her previous film, “Obvious Child.” There are certainly some broad similarities: Her character Frances has just gotten out of a relationship and she’s in a slump both romantically and professionally. So it is no wonder Slate brings the same…
2020 is far from perfect. The world seems to be going in always more chaotic directions, with no sign of ever slowing down. And in a time in which the thoughts of enchanting strolls on the beach seem like a fairy tale of old, Jessica Swale’s first full-length film, Summerland, is a much-needed reminder that…
“Everywhere is the wind of heaven; round and above all are boundless sea and sky, infinite space and a great silence” — Katherine Routledge The familiar saying attributed to Charles Dudley Warner that “Everybody complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it” is turned upside down by Japanese director Makoto Shinkai (“Your Name”)…
The Invisible Man has been the cinematic subject of effects extravaganzas (most notably James Whale’s 1933 adaptation of H.G. Wells’ classic novel), wartime propaganda (“Invisible Agent”), deadpan comedy (“Memoirs of an Invisible Man”), and psychosexual satire (“Hollow Man”), but rarely has he ever led a straight horror film. This is the hole that filmmaker Leigh…
