Holiday Classics: “Lady on a Train” (1945)

From the late 1930s through the early 1940s, Deanna Durbin was one of the silver screen’s most popular young stars. After an appearance in a 1936 short subject titled “Every Sunday” showcased her stunningly mature operatic voice (opposite the more pop-oriented but equally impressive sounds of another young star in the making, Judy Garland), the […]

Review: “Bones and All”

“Let’s be people.” Those simple words, uttered by Maren (Taylor Russell) to her partner Lee (Timothée Chalamet) toward the end of director Luca Guadagnino’s “Bones and All” carry added weight because we know, by this point, that neither of them are what you might call normal people. Maren and Lee are lovers on the run, […]

Holiday Classics: “Repeat Performance” (1947)

Have you ever reached the end of the year and wished you could go back and do it all over again? That wish is granted to Joan Leslie’s Sheila Page in “Repeat Performance,” a 1947 film noir with a unique supernatural bent that might best be described as “It’s a Wonderful Life” meets “The Twilight […]

Review: “Please Baby Please”

As young men clad in leather jackets leap and twirl down a dark street, the opening scene of “Please Baby Please” immediately draws a visual parallel to the classic romantic musical “West Side Story,” which begins with rival gang members dancing around the city until they meet and conflict ensues. But Amanda Kramer’s “Please Baby […]

Review: “She Said”

It goes without saying that the New York Times’ October 2017 breaking of their investigation into sexual misconduct by influential Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein is the single most influential piece of journalism of the last decade. Investigated by Times reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, the story’s publication resulted in 82 women coming forward […]

SLIFF 2022 First Time Female Filmmakers Roundup

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending the 31st annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival, which was held in person from November 3-13 in venues across the St. Louis area as well as online. Among the films I got to watch in person were Nikyatu Jusu’s stunning debut feature “Nanny” […]

Review: “The Menu”

Perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise that director Mark Mylod’s first feature film in over 10 years (his previous one was the 2011 Chris Evans/Anna Faris romantic comedy “What’s Your Number?” a movie I forgot even existed until I looked that up) is a skewering of upper class vapidity. Mylod’s extensive television credits include, […]

Review: “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”

The most striking images in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” can be found in its opening scene. Wakandans, ethereal in their white costumes (courtesy of designer Ruth E. Carter, who won an Academy Award for her stunning work on 2018’s “Black Panther”), gather to lay T’Challa, the Black Panther who passed away off-screen due to an […]

Review: “Armageddon Time”

I walked out of “Armageddon Time,” writer and director James Gray’s coming-of-age drama inspired by his own upbringing, feeling an unexpected sense of unease. I attribute it to the fact that when I watched the movie, it was election night in America, the midterms that would determine, among other things, which party takes control of […]

Review: “Something in the Dirt”

Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead’s latest film, “Something in the Dirt,” concludes with a dedication: “to making movies with your friends.” This is the fifth feature film the pair have written and directed together (they also star) in a filmography that includes everything from indie (“The Endless”) to big budget sci-fi (“Synchronic” for Netflix), as […]