Review: “May December”

Most cinematic retellings of true stories traffic in impersonation. And we, as a culture, reward that. Praise isn’t necessarily heaped on an actor for the soulfulness and honesty of their performance, but for how closely they arrive at an approximation of what we perceive to be real. Think about how so many of the most […]

Review: “The Killer”

“Stick to the plan.” That’s the mantra that the titular assassin of The Killer, played by Michael Fassbender, repeats in his head as he goes about his job, constantly rationalizing the need for a clinical attitude and lack of empathy every time he’s faced with a situation that challenges his inhumanity. The same sentence could […]

Tribeca Review: “Cinnamon”

Writer/director Bryian Keith Montgomery Jr.’s stylish debut feature film Cinnamon is described as recalling 70s Blaxploitation films. Naturally, this requires some unpacking of that subgenre, whose name was coined literally from a portmanteau of the words “black” and “exploitation.” As much as Blaxploitation movies—whose stories usually revolved around crime and graphic violence—centered around empowering Black […]

Tribeca Review: “Stan Lee”

“If I had superhuman powers, would I still have to worry about making a living, or having my dates like me?” This portion of a quote from Stan Lee that opens the documentary of the same name asks a simple question, but nudges at what made him such a visionary in the comic book world. […]

SXSW Review: “Flamin’ Hot”

Even the most mundane projects can have interesting stories behind them. And even the most interesting stories can make for the blandest movies. Eva Longoria’s directorial debut Flamin’ Hot draws from the memoirs of Richard Montañez, the uneducated Mexican American janitor who worked his way through the ranks of Frito Lay to become an executive, […]

Review: “Halloween Ends”

Walking out of my screening of “Halloween Ends” last week, I witnessed what may be considered a microcosm of most die hard fans’ reaction to David Gordon Green’s final installment in his “Halloween” trilogy: a man, wearing a “Halloween” T-shirt and clutching a Michael Myers mask in one hand, shouting at his friends—or perhaps no […]

Review: “Blonde”

Kim Kardashian stirred up controversy for the gown she chose to wear to the Met Gala earlier this year, although not because of the look itself. The buzz came, rather, courtesy of the gown’s origins: it was the same nude-colored, beaded dress worn by Marilyn Monroe in 1962, when she famously sang “Happy Birthday, Mr. […]

TIFF Review: “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery”

Toronto International Film Festival Special Presentations World Premiere From the dreary coziness of autumn in New England to the sun-dappled shores of a Grecian island, writer and director Rian Johnson takes detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) to the other side of the world on a new case in “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.” But […]

TIFF Review: “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story”

Toronto International Film Festival 2022 Midnight Madness World Premiere Weird Al Yankovic is no typical music artist. The shaggy-haired, Hawaiian shirt connoisseur musician/comedian built a career out of a niche area of the industry: parodies of existing songs and polka covers. So it shouldn’t be surprising that a movie about his life would be no […]

Review: “Prey”

This weekend, I was really jonesing to watch “Prey,” director Dan Trachtenberg’s prequel to/reboot of the “Predator” franchise featuring a female Comanche warrior as the main protagonist that was released on Hulu last Friday. And then I realized something: I actually hadn’t seen a “Predator” movie before. Not any of the sequels or Alien team-ups, […]