Category: Theatrical Review
Paul Greengrass’ trademark, as anyone reading this knows by now, is a jittery, handheld camera meant to replicate the immediacy of being present in person for the events chronicled. In News of the World, working for the first time with...
On June 2nd, 1962, in the city of Novocherkassk, the Soviet army and the KGB opened fire on protestors who were supporting striking factory workers. Officially, 26 people were killed but locals and survivors count many more. Bodies were buried...
In comedy, there’s this term “clapter.” It describes what happens when a comedian gains an audience’s approval by declaring something with which they are sure to agree instead of by saying funny things. The audience claps instead of laughing. Comedians...
We learn from an opening title card that the events of The Midnight Sky take place “3 Weeks After the Event,” which places George Clooney’s new science fiction flick damned close to the record for quickest to induce an eyeroll....
From the first growled syllables of Michael Ealy’s voiceover–accompanied by aerial shots of the Los Angeles skyline–it’s apparent exactly what kind of seedy pop-thriller Deon Taylor’s Fatale is going to be. And there are plot developments you’ll spot on the...
It’s unclear exactly why Shawn Linden’s visceral and harrowing new film Hunter Hunter is a period piece, taking place sometime in the mid- to late-1980s, based on the technology on display. Maybe the remoteness of its setting is deepened by...
Despite its boxy, throwback aspect ratio (1.66:1, I think; I didn’t bust out the tape measure), Education has a more modern look than Steve McQueen’s previous Small Axe films. It’s the saturated color timing that initially had me thinking its...
Does a movie still pass the Bechdel test if the two named women talking to each other about something other than a man are both played by the same actor? That’s mostly a theoretical question since there are, in fact,...
One of cinema’s former grand dames, now holed up in a decrepit mansion with her former collaborators, surrounded by moth-eaten reminders of her time in the limelight… If the set-up to Juan José Campanello’s The Weasel’s Tale sounds like Sunset...
Sienna Miller has long been underappreciated as an actor. Maybe it’s because of her unfortunate tendency to get stuck in stock concerned wife roles (Foxcatcher, American Sniper) or ill-conceived flops (remember the Alfie remake?). But in more idiosyncratic fare, from...
