It’s a sign of the changing times that one of our favorite films of the year barely made it to the big screen at all.
Glenn McDonald
Posted inFilm & Television
Upbeat Buddy Comedy Meets the Jim Crow South in Green Book
The title refers to The Negro Motorist Green Book, a guide for African-American travelers published in the days of segregation and sundown laws.
Posted inFilm & Television
‘The Ballad of Buster Scruggs’ Isn’t Half Bad. (OK, Actually, It’s Exactly Half Bad.)
The Coen anthology features six shorts of varying quality—but the last three are so good that they reflect glory back on the first three.
Posted inFilm & Television
Low-Budget Space Western Prospect Wrings Very Cool Stuff from Very Limited Resources
We don’t see a lot of indie sci-fi on the big screen here, but this one, featuring Jay Duplass, is landing in Cary.
Posted inFilm & Television
Can You Ever Forgive Me? Isn’t Sure Whether Its Subject’s a Con Artist or a Noble Striver
In her first big dramatic role, comic actor Melissa McCarthy makes the most of a muddled characterization of a real-life literary forger.
Posted inFilm & Television
The Happy Prince Is a Dark and Passionate Tribute to the Last Days of Oscar Wilde
Rupert Everett writes, directs, and stars in a wonderfully acted but sometimes clumsily told story of a great writer wrecked by a cruel culture.
Posted inFilm & Television
Robert Redford Goes Out with a Bang in Crime Caper The Old Man & the Gun
The film, said to be Redford’s last as an actor, opens Friday, Oct. 19.
Posted inFilm & Television
On the Upside, Crazy Rich Asians Is a Genuine Cultural Milestone. On the Downside, It’s … Not That Good?
CRAZY RICH ASIANS Opening Friday, August 17 The big-budget romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians is an interesting specimen. As the first major studio film in twenty-five years to feature an all-Asian cast, it’s an important milestone in terms of cultural representation. The film manages to be a significant cinematic event, and maybe even an Important […]
Posted inFilm & Television
In Ant-Man and the Wasp, the Marvel Cinematic Universe Takes a Goofy, Low-Stakes Break from Existential Threats
ANT-MAN AND THE WASP Opening Friday, July 6 As a second-tier superhero movie with modest ambitions, Ant-Man and the Wasp works just fine for what it is. It’s the opposite of epic: a goofy, fun sci-fi ride with the spirit of old-school pulp fiction, the kind of adventure you might find in a beat-up copy […]
Posted inCulture
Movie Review: At Least We Get Bening, Moss, and Ronan Mucking Around in Chekhovian Mischief in an Otherwise Standard The Seagull
The Seagull★★★ Now playingYou love her But she loves him And he loves somebody else You just can’t win —The J. Geils Band, “Love Stinks” It’s summertime on a nineteenth-century Russian country estate, and love triangles are colliding in a tangle of messy geometry. The aging stage actress Irina is visiting her lover Trigorin, a […]
