With the original Beetlejuice, Tim Burton established himself as one of Hollywood’s most dementedly distinct visionaries. In more recent years, Burton has felt more like a director for hire, going through the motions with studio-mandated projects like Disney’s live-action Dumbo…
Read moreTackling the Trump administration’s policy of separating children from their parents at the Southern border, Errol Morris’s newest documentary “Separated” is an incisive overview of the rise of Trumpism, the fear-mongering that went along his rise to power, and his…
Read moreI haven't read the William S. Burroughs novel that Queer is adapted from, but if you told me Luca Guadagnino had gutted it and started from scratch, I'd believe you. His latest movie seems to me to be in clear…
Read morePoliticians often invoke the idea of children or future generations when urging the importance of collective action with consequences that only emerge in the long term. Humans can show tremendous capacity as a species when facing a tragedy that stares…
Read moreAfter making off with the Golden Lion in 2019, Joker spawned a sequel that has also serendipitously waltzes into the Venice Film Festival lineup. If you keep up with all the comic book universes, you already know Todd Phillips' Joker:…
Read moreYou’d be hard-pressed this year to find a movie that’s as lean and mean as Jeremy Saulnier’s Rebel Ridge. A thriller that’s part Rambo, part Reacher, and all Aaron Pierre, it confidently rolls into town, kicks some ass, then gets…
Read moreCo-writers/co-directors/co-stars Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon mix crime and laughs in The Falling Star. This French-Belgian comedy is like if Wes Anderson made a crime caper. Boris (Abel) is a bartender at the titular The Falling Star. He is a…
Read moreTense, taut, and deeply gripping writer/director John Swab’s dramatic drug cartel/fentanyl trade crime thriller “King Ivory” is a terrific surprise from the Venice Film Festival’s Orrizonti Extras section. Reminiscent of Steven Soderbergh’s Academy Award-winning drug trafficking thriller, “Traffic,” though rougher and slightly more condensed…
Read moreIt's always fascinating to see a master filmmaker work in a different language, especially when their work is singular. Tone, personality, and rhythm can come across very differently, and sometimes be difficult to recreate, in a new cultural context. Some…
Read moreEditor's note: The below recap contains spoilers for Bad Monkey Episode 5. The previous episode of Bad Monkey ended on a jarring note, as Vince Vaughn's Andrew Yancy concludes that Christopher (Rob Delaney) and Nick Stripling are the same person…
Read moreD is for dynamic. D is for dazzling. D is for The Deal, the dynamic, dazzling crime short written and directed by McGregory Frederique. After a wild police chase ends with arrests and bookings at the North Hollywood Police station, we…
Read moreImagine the rank, pungent horror of William Friedkin’s rather foul and f*cked up horror, 1973’s original faint-inducing “The Exorcist” (excellent, but harrowing). Then recall the brutal, sometimes nasty side of Lee Daniel’s unflinching, sometimes hard-to-watch Sundance hit “Precious.” Smash them…
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