SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL 2023 REVIEW! A Thousand and One, the debut feature by writer-director A.V. Rockwell, is set in 1993, New York. We first meet Inez (Teyana Taylor), a strong-headed, fierce, and determined 22-year-old hairdresser being freshly released from Rikers…
Read moreThe opening scene of Kenneth Dagatan’s sophomore feature, “In My Mother’s Skin,” promises the audience each of the horror genre’s grisliest thrills: The squelching sounds of oozing blood, the sight of flesh-ripping carnage in progress as well as in past…
Read moreIt’s been over a decade since the first Magic Mike, which I blindly went into under the assumption that it was a basketball movie. You can imagine my surprise when male strippers were handing out condoms at the advance screening.…
Read moreRia Khan (Priya Kansara, sparkling in her feature debut) likes to believe that she’s no ordinary British-Pakistani teenager. Her dreams, for instance, always seem outsized — she doesn’t just want to learn martial arts but rather perfect it so well…
Read moreMove over, Chucky! There’s a new killer doll in town. She’s the model 3 generative android, or M3GAN for short, and she is a child’s greatest companion and a parent’s greatest ally. A marvel of artificial intelligence, the life-like doll…
Read moreThere was a time when it seemed like every movie trailer for every single comedy began with bouncy music and a voice-over artist explaining cheerfully, “[NAME OF PROTAGONIST] had it all!” But at the beginning of Nicole Holofcener’s “You Hurt…
Read moreThe drama Goliath agonizingly revisits the idea that you cannot go home again. Canadian director/writer Luke Villemaire brings the pain when a young woman gets a fateful call at work. That lady is Robin Walker (Jessica Sipos), who has a promising…
Read moreIf Jordan Firstman did not exist, it would be necessary for Sebastián Silva to invent him. “Discomfort rooted in class friction” and “the perverse amusement of watching people be annoying” rank high on the list of stalwart indie filmmaker Silva’s favorite recurring themes, and…
Read moreHome Movie Reviews Puss In Boots: The Last Wish Review - Spectacular Animation, Underwhelming Story The film allows Puss in Boots time to shine. But far too many characters and a lack of heart prevent The Last Wish from reaching…
Read moreJohn Carney makes musicals. He’s one of the few filmmakers today who makes them exclusively or even extensively; he’s the only one of that group whose musicals are, consistently, any good. (Sorry, Rob Marshall stans.) He doesn’t make old-school, characters-burst-into-song…
Read moreHome Movie Reviews 'Passages' Review: Franz Rogowski Stars in Love Triangle Tale of Selfishness and Ego | Sundance 2023 Ira Sachs' latest also stars Adèle Exarchopoulos and Ben Whishaw in this story of the complicated bonds of love. Image via…
Read moreHome Movie Reviews 'Animalia' Review: Sofia Alaoui Mesmerizing Sci-Fi Debut Takes Us Into A World Beyond | Sundance 2023 This cinematic communing with the unknown finds something striking in its sublime science fiction story. Image via Sundance What is it…
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