The Greatest Showman is a confusing animal. Its opening frames begin the movie by displaying the familiar and orchestral 20th Century Fox logo used from the 50s through the 80s, implying the audience is in for a reverent throwback to the classic Hollywood musicals of yore. Then — literally six seconds later — the studio’s…
For her fun fictionalized memoir of sorts, Greta Gerwig has painted a coming-of-age tale almost entirely in shades of grey. Lady Bird is the writer/director’s gentle, through passionately prickly look at the haze that lies just beyond adolescence, with Saoirse Ronan (“The Grand Budapest Hotel”) playing Christine, the also titular protagonist who must navigate the…
Mr. Roosevelt is a quirky comedy written, directed by and starring comedian Noël Wells (“The Incredible Jessica James”) and is about a struggling funny person who travels from Los Angeles back to her old stomping grounds in Austin, Texas when a loved one falls ill. While there, she has the misfortune of staying with her…
Drew (Scott Eastwood, “The Longest Ride”) is a guy who hates his job. When he runs into an attractive woman, he decides to join the same acting school she attends, for no other reason than that he wants to — in his words — “bang her.” Hijinks follow, he makes friends while learning a lesson…
According to Swedish director Ruben Östlund (“Force Majeure”), society today has turned its back on the social contract, the obligation that people not only express their concerns for other’s well-being but act upon them in concrete and meaningful ways. Winner of the Palme d’Or at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, Östlund’s latest film, The Square,…
In Una, the powerful screen adaptation of David Harrower’s play “Blackbird” about the sexual abuse of a thirteen-year-old girl, Australian director Benedict Andrews does what has become increasingly uncommon in modern cinema — he makes us think. While it may be uncomfortable to look outside of the reassuring categories of victim and victimizer, Andrews asks…
Many people can relate, and even confess, to being unmotivated in life. When ambition has disappeared and all our fears of rejection and failure become all too realistic, we retreat into what is comfortable. For once promising chef, twenty-something-year-old Charlie Brenner (spectacularly portrayed by Freddie Highmore, “The Art of Getting By”), this common feeling of…
