Review: “A Hero”

Nothing and no one are as they seem in Asghar Farhadi’s “A Hero,” a drama that examines its characters’ ethics with all the tension of a thriller. The writer and director’s latest film, Iran’s entry to this year’s Academy Awards, kicks off with a deceptively simple premise. Rahim Soltani (Amir Jadidi) has been imprisoned for […]

Review: “The Tragedy of Macbeth”

White so bright you can’t stare at it without blinking. Suddenly, figures emerge, walking straight toward the camera as if out of a dream. In fact, this dream-like state pervades the entirety of Joel Coen’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy “Macbeth,” his first solo outing as a director without brother Ethan. But he brings every skill […]

Review: “Licorice Pizza”

I don’t think I realized just how much I enjoyed “Licorice Pizza” until the final frame of the end credits dissolved, and I remembered that I had spent the last two hours or so sitting in a movie theater in 2021, not running carelessly around the San Fernando Valley in the early 1970s. Writer/director Paul […]

Review: “The Matrix Resurrections”

“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 […]

Review: “Spider-Man: No Way Home”

I wasn’t sure, especially in light of a pandemic that it seems we’ll never pull out of, if I’d ever have another theatrical experience quite on the level of “Avengers: Endgame.” I’m not a particular fan of that movie, or even the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole, but there’s no denying that the conversion […]

Review: “Nightmare Alley” (2021)

If Guillermo Del Toro’s previous feature film, “The Shape of Water,” was about the perseverance of love and humanizing monsters, his latest movie, “Nightmare Alley,” is about as opposite to that as one can get. Based on William Lindsay Gresham’s 1946 novel, which was also adapted into a 1947 film of the same name, “Nightmare […]

Review: “Being the Ricardos”

“I Love Lucy” is one of the most beloved television series of all time, and for good reason. The sitcom, which ran from 1951 to 1957, utilized an ensemble cast to find humor in everyday situations, from domestic squabbles to career struggles. Besides its critical and popular acclaim—“I Love Lucy” was the most-watched TV show […]

Review: “West Side Story” (2021)

The 1961 film version of the 1957 Broadway musical “West Side Story” may be legendary, but it’s the rare movie that practically begs to be remade. The movie, based on the musical with book by Arthur Laurents, music and lyrics by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, and choreography by Jerome Robbins, is delightful in some […]

Review: “The Power of the Dog”

“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 […]

Review: “Encanto”

“Encanto” doesn’t see its heroine leave home on some grand quest. It doesn’t have a villain, or an action-packed climax. The 60th feature film from Walt Disney Animation is one of its most intimate, rarely leaving the area surrounding the sprawling, magical Colombian home of the Madrigal family, and barely interacting with any characters outside […]