Nashville Film Festival Review: “Queen of Glory”

Few filmmakers lately seem as capable of accomplishing as much in two hours as Nana Mensah does in 75 minutes in her directorial debut, “Queen of Glory.” Mensah wrote the film as well as stars as Sarah, a Ghanaian-American living in New York City whose life is turned upside down after the sudden death of […]

Nashville Film Festival Reviews: “We’re All Going to the World’s Fair,” “Faye”

Today from the Nashville Film Festival (which starts September 30 and runs through October 6), I have reviews of two surreal films screening there. “We’re All Going to the World’s Fair,” which premiere at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, examines isolation through a lonely teenager’s internet interactions and the online challenge she engages […]

Review: “Falling for Figuro”

The romantic comedy genre has touched almost every imaginable environment or scenario, but I can’t think of one set in the world of opera. Director Ben Lewin’s “Falling for Figuro,” which follows rival opera singers who fall in love, may ultimately adhere to the expectations of the genre, but it also occasionally subverts them, and […]

Nashville Film Festival Reviews: “Charm Circle,” “Fanny: The Right to Rock”

The Nashville Film Festival is taking place this week starting September 30 and running through October 6, and oday I have reviews of two documentaries that are playing both in person and virtually at the festival: the slice of life “Charm Circle,” making its North American premiere after winning the audience award at Sheffield Doc […]

Nashville Film Festival: Short Film Reviews

This week, I’m very excited to be covering the Nashville Film Festival, which is occurring both virtually and in person from September 30 through October 6. I’ll be dropping reviews of some of the films playing at the festival throughout the week, starting off with four short films I selected to review. They range from […]

Review: “Dear Evan Hansen”

Like most musical theatre fans, I was all over the “Dear Evan Hansen” Broadway cast recording when it was released in early 2017. The collection of pop tunes written by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who were also behind the popular musicals “La La Land” (which I like) and “The Greatest Showman” (which I loathe) […]

Review: “The Eyes of Tammy Faye”

“The Eyes of Tammy Faye” opens with the facts. A swirl of news reports, photos, and headlines move across the screen, detailing the downfall of popular televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, who built an empire throughout the 1970s and 80s with their Christian TV program “The PTL Club,” only to see it come crashing […]

Review: “Cry Macho”

Clint Eastwood has long asserted that 1992’s “Unforgiven” would be the last film he made in the western genre, the genre that both began and defined his screen career. Beginning with a lead role in the late 1950s television series “Rawhide,” then embodying the now-iconic antihero the “Man with No Name” in Sergio Leone’s “Dollars” […]

Review: “The Card Counter”

“I like the regime. I like the routine.” So says William Tell (Oscar Isaac) of his time in prison, seen at the start of writer/director Paul Schrader’s “The Card Counter,” a line delivered in the moody noir anti-hero narration that continues throughout the film. The same could also be said of Tell’s time outside of […]

Review: “Malignant”

Unlike a lot of movies, “Malignant” doesn’t take its time to slowly build up the story, characters, and tension before diving into the grisly details. Rather, it starts off at a sprint and doesn’t stop—if anything, it just runs faster and faster as it progresses. Director James Wan cut his teeth on the horror genre, […]