SUBSERVIENCE. I want to be a better person but I evidently don’t want it enough to scroll past the schlockier movies and series cranked out by streaming platforms as Gladiator II and Wicked pull in everyone willing to leave the house. And yes, if a domestic horror/thriller or a creepy AI robot movie pops up, […]
Broadway Cinema
Posted inArts + Scene
The Grand Escape of Emilia Peréz
EMILIA PERÉZ. Less is often more when it comes to foreknowledge. Take, for example, the precious little I knew about this film, the latest from revered French auteur Jacques Audiard. Even as far from the epicenter of the nerdosphere as I orbit, it has been difficult not to be at least somewhat aware of the […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Blitz Strikes its Mark
BLITZ. The screen acting of children, like their writing, can and often does transcend inexperience with immediacy and truth. Not yet calloused by influence, uninformed by professional habit or tricks or laziness, these performances lie closer to the surface than for most of their adult counterparts and can, given appropriate direction, create something realer and […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Anora‘s Elusive Beauty
ANORA. Occasionally, unexpectedly, a work of art — in its evocativeness and embrace of its medium — stymies critical reaction. That may be (partially) an excuse for lethargy due to other sectors of life; impending national and global crises could be a factor. But Anora is one of the most exciting, human, fully realized exercises […]
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Baby Assassins to the Rescue
BABY ASSASSINS. In the weeks before the election, I leveled out my internal and external vibes with a steady flow of horror movies — easy enough to do during Spooky Season anyway. But in the week following our nation’s failed group project, I find myself drawn back to the oblivion of action and uninterested in […]
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Absolution Falls Short
On the eve of whatever is to come, I briefly struggled with the notion of dragging myself to another Robert Zemeckis experiment in “cutting-edge” technology paired with increasingly staid, conventional, didactic storytelling. In the case of Here, his latest, the conceit, as I understand it, is that the camera remains static through eons of time, […]
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An ’80s Horror Fest
Despite my whole “whatever it is,” I am not, in fact, immune to the spirit of the season. I don’t have a costume lined up, but there are voluminous bags of candy to be deployed, John Carpenter’s themes remain in heavy rotation on the turntable and I’ve been steadily making my way through a stack […]
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Woman of the Hour and the Dating Gaze
WOMAN OF THE HOUR. In the “real,” nightmare world of late 20th century America, when serial killers seemed to lurk inside every tricked-out van and basement apartment in America, there was a television show predicated on the importance of the male gaze and horrifically distorted sexual dynamics and expectations (really, it was only one of […]
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The Making of Monsters
SATURDAY NIGHT. Although I have drifted through long, possibly significant eras of the show without giving it so much as a look, Saturday Night Live has been an influence and a cultural barometer, even before I got brave or dumb enough to sneak out of my room to watch it. Now in its fifth decade, […]
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Alone Together
HIS THREE DAUGHTERS. Deep into the third act of writer-director Azazel Jacobs’ (French Exit, 2020; Terri, 2011) latest, a dying man’s thoughts on obituary are paraphrased by one of his titular daughters. To further paraphrase, a description of the departed’s life can only fail to convey the totality of that life and its end; only […]
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Journeys of the Self
MEGALOPOLIS. For a person who (still) uses Apocalypse Now (1979) to self-soothe, a new Francis Ford Coppola movie is kind of a big deal, no argument. The excitement of that prospect was and is tempered by several factors, though. First, there is the notion that the filmmaker in question has been busier with his wine […]
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Never Let Go‘s Tenuous Bonds
NEVER LET GO. Let me begin by opening myself up to scorn and ridicule: We need to give Halle Berry another crack at the role of Catwoman. Her action work in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019) and Bruised (2020), in which her fighting chops (in her damn 50s) were equaled by her portrayal of […]