Title: Birdman of Alcatraz Year: 1962 Director: John Frankenheimer Cast: Burt Lancaster, Thelma Ritter, Karl Malden Synopsis: Sentenced to a lifetime in solitary confinement, convicted murderer Robert Stroud (Lancaster) combats the seclusion and doldrums of isolation by caring for a...
The opening titles of Agnès Varda’s final film, Varda by Agnès, are backdropped by stills from her films; there are beaches, gleaners, couples in the throes of happiness, etc. So, if you didn’t know beforehand, you’d realize pretty quickly that...
Title: The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith Year: 1978 Director: Fred Schepisi Cast: Tommy Lewis, Angela Punch McGregor, Freddy Reynolds, Jack Thompsen, Steve Dodd Synopsis: After a lifetime of prejudice and mental and physical abuse, a young aboriginal man, Jimmie Blacksmith...
Daniel Vigne’s The Return of Martin Guerre, recently restored and returning to theaters, starts by introducing the viewer to a mystery. The film opens in media res (it’s from 1982, before every movie did that) with Bertrande (Nathalie Baye) being...
In Gérard Corbiau’s Farinelli, cups and pools of milky white liquid abound. They come in the form of creams and medicines and other things but their significance isn’t clear until nearly the end of the film, when a flashback delivers...
Jack O’Connell spends most of Edward Zwick’s Trial by Fire wearing prison jumpsuits behind bars or glass. Those who saw him in David Mackenzie’s superior Starred Up from 2013 won’t be surprised to learn that his performance here is the...
It doesn’t seem unreasonable to assume, if you’ve chosen to watch a movie called Tolkien about J.R.R. Tolkien, you’re probably forearmed with some awareness and appreciation of who the guy was. But director Dome Karukoski and screenwriters David Gleeson and...
This review originally ran as part of our Sundance 2019 coverage. Joe Berlinger’s Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile ultimately fails in its mission to provide the viewer with anything deeper or broader than an adaptation of what they’d uncover in a Google search. But...
Oleg Ivenko is a first-time actor who was cast by director Ralph Fiennes as famed Russian ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev more for his ability to pull off the required dance moves than for his thespian skills. This is all plain...
Title: The Elephant Man Year: 1980 Director: David Lynch Cast: John Hurt, Anne Bancroft, Anthony Hopkins, John Gielgud Synopsis: Dr. Traves (Hopkins), a surgeon, rescues a deformed man from an abusive and degrading freakshow. As Traves studies the deformities, he...
