Just when you think you have seen every topic about dealing with cancer, filmmakers Lisa Barros D’Sa, Glenn Leyburn strip away melodrama and focus on love under a microscope. They take a barebones script focused on a husband and wife coming to terms with cancer and allow these actors to dig into the […]
The most unusual technique in this film is that the life of the mother of one of the main protagonists is highlighted in accounting for a love story that transpires years later. It works because the mother’s personality and her decisions (advanced for the time) are so fascinating. Christine Eames (Adams) leaves her home (and the man
A shell of a movie, that’s what documentarian turned feature film director Kitty Green has delivered with The Assistant. What should have been a short film, is prolonged into an excruciating 85 minutes that Emmy Winner Julia Garner (Ozark) can’t steer on her own. Green’s story about a woman working in a film production/distribution company
Writer/directors Nat Faxon and Jim Rash’s “Downhill” is less of a remake of the 2014 award winning “Force Majeure” and more of an English language interpretation. The premise is the same, however with older, American characters, a tightened script, and a slight imbalance in the point of view, “Downhill” is the simplified version for US
The first Korean film to win the Palm d’Or ignited expectations at Cannes as Internationally acclaimed filmmaker Bong Joon-Ho’s latest work leaps to the front of the international film awards race. “Snowpiercer” and “Okja” are the most recent examples of a filmmaker that’s sure of his craft and working at a level above most. He
After winning the screenplay award at Cannes, and topping many industry professional’s top film lists of the year, “Portrait of a Lady on Fir”e comes into the Toronto International Film Festival with elevated buzz. It’s apparently clear now that France will be deciding between Céline Sciamma’s female love story or another Cannes breakout playing at
I applaud this film most for demonstrating so clearly how a dictatorship can evolve in a country newly liberated from Communism and asking for government to be more accountable, to be hijacked, a lesson for many democracies in the world today. Citizen K (Mikhail Khodorkovsky) is about a man whom we will all recognize. He’s flawed—at least among
David Ayer’s Suicide Squad (2016) was a mixed bag. DC’s second attempt to rival Marvel’s Avengers franchise saga came and went. Now two time Oscar nominee Margot Robbie (Bombshell, I Tonya), catapults the most talked about performance from Suicide Squad, into her own movie. Director Cathy Yan trades the darkness of Suicide Squad for an
A new year means a new, (bad) Blake Lively film. The former “Gossip Girl” has been churning out at least one rotten flick a year since marrying Ryan Reynolds in 2012. Lively is a leading actress poster child for discardable first-quarter studio movies. The Rhythm Section finds Lively (“A Simple Favor”, “All I See is
You would think Mexico would pick something as far away from “Roma” as they could find for this year’s International Film submission to the Academy Awards. Cinematically The Chambermaid is the polar opposite; stagnant camera work, one single location, modern day setting and in color. Yet actress Lila Avilés’ directorial debut, like “Roma”, is about