What we have here is a dynamite premise fumbled in the execution. BRIGHTBURN gives us a strange visitor from another planet crashing to Earth as a baby and taken in by a good-hearted, infertile farm couple (Elizabeth Banks, David Denman) in the midst of baby fever. As with that other story of an infant from… Read More »
MICROBE AND GASOLINE — Michel Gondry Interview
Michel Gondry is a man unafraid to let flights of fancy inform, and sometimes drive, his whimsically serious films, which include MOOD INDIGO and THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP. Yet in MICROBE AND GASOLINE, his semi-autobiographical film, he has kept his gift for magical realism in check, focusing instead on the magic of friendship at a… Read More »
THE DUFF Rules
There are, to be sure, the usual tropes of high school angst and triumph to be found in THE DUFF, based on the book by Kody Keplinger, but this is a film distinguished by sprightly, intelligent writing, and outstanding performances that are not just funny, but also perceptive and nuanced. Except for the high school… Read More »