Movie Reviews, Old and New
I’m back today with some short reviews of movies that have been released on streaming services so far this month. February is the peak time for romantic comedies, and I’ve got two of them here, as well as a YA drama, a reboot of a horror classic, and a new Soderbergh thriller. Read more on […]
Read More Streaming Movie ReviewsNoa (Daisy Edgar-Jones) is around halfway through her first date with Steve (Sebastian Stan) when she tells him that she hates “this”—“this” meaning dating. “FRESH” opens with a portrait of just how Noa’s love life is going, and it isn’t going well. She aimlessly swipes through dating apps, and a date she goes on with […]
Read More Sundance Review: “Fresh”On a day in July 2017, Brian Brown-Easley walks into an Atlanta-area Wells Fargo Bank. He requests to withdraw $25 from his account, makes some friendly small talk with the teller, and then asks her if he can have a piece of paper to write something down. As their seemingly normal interaction winds down to […]
Read More Sundance Review: “892”“The Matrix Resurrections” opens with a moment of déjà vu: familiar music cues accompany rows of green code scrolling across the screen, followed by a phone call, and then a confrontation. If these scenes feel overly familiar, it’s because they are almost an exact recreation of the opening of Lana and Lilly Wachowski’s visionary 1999 […]
Read More Review: “The Matrix Resurrections”If it wasn’t for Mark Cousins’ extensive 2019 documentary series “Women Make Film,” I would likely have never become aware of “On the Twelfth Day,” a delightful short film that serves as a farcical interpretation of the song “The 12 Days of Christmas.” In the documentary, “On the Twelfth Day” is brought up at the […]
Read More Holiday Classics: “On the Twelfth Day” (1955)“This is Phil. You’ll meet Benedict later.” That’s the way that Jane Campion, writer and director of “The Power of the Dog,” purportedly introduced the star of her movie to the rest of the cast and crew. Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays sadistic Montana rancher Phil Burbank, apparently remained in character for the entire shoot, and […]
Read More Review: “The Power of the Dog”“Eternals” opens in a manner that isn’t typical of any previous film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Instead of jumping straight into the action, an opening scroll details the mythos behind the story we are about to watch unfold. In 5000 B.C., ten super-powered beings known as the Eternals were sent to Earth by the […]
Read More Review: “Eternals”“Titane” may have only just been released in theaters stateside, but writer/director Julia Ducournau’s second feature, which recently won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, is already notorious for its main character’s, um, affinity for automobiles. But there is way more to “Titane” than that. It’s a horror film, sure, one that involves pregnancy and self-mutilation […]
Read More Review: “Titane”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 […]
Read More Nashville Film Festival Review: “Queen of Glory”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 […]
Read More Nashville Film Festival Reviews: “We’re All Going to the World’s Fair,” “Faye”
Katie at the Movies 