Falling into the subgenre of dinner parties gone disastrously wrong, THE TROUBLE WITH JESSICA, an astringent black comedy of ethics, finds five people who have been friends since their university days being forced by one of them to re-evaluate everything they thought they knew about themselves and each other. By the end of what will… Read More »
A HAUNTING IN VENICE
A HAUNTING IN VENICE finds master detective Hercule Poirot (director Kenneth Branagh) in a somber mood. Two world wars and first-hand knowledge of the evil that men (and women) do have prompted him to become a virtual recluse in Venice, where swarms of eager would-be clients are forcefully rebuffed by the formidable bodyguard (Vincenzo Di… Read More »
SMILE
Among the primates, expect for humans, widening the mouth and showing the teeth is a signal of aggression. In humans, it’s called a smile, and I’m sure that anthropologists have made much hay about that behavioral disconnect between us and our cousins. Parker Finn, in his feature film debut as writer and director, also makes… Read More »
MEN
Click here to listen to the flashback interview with Alex Garland for EX MACHINA. One of the many striking images from Alex Garland’s MEN is of a serene autumnal landscape with a dark and looming entrance to a tunnel. It all but shimmers in the late afternoon sun, and then a raindrop falls into it,… Read More »
ON THE COUNT OF THREE
Jerrod Carmichal is a quietly compelling presence in his directorial debut, ON THE COUNT OF THREE. As Val, half of a suicidal duo out to make the last day of their lives count for something, or at least to make it a day less depressing than the ones that have so far rounded out their… Read More »
THE NIGHT HOUSE
In THE NIGHT HOUSE, star/producer Rebecca Hall dares to give us a female protagonist who does not ask us to like her. In fact, she all but dares us not to. Yet, in a brilliant performance that combines pain and vitriol, she makes us empathize with a new widow who may or may not be… Read More »
LOVING VINCENT
The subjects of Vincent Van Gogh’s masterpieces come to startling, vivid, and enchanting life in LOVING VINCENT, a film of enormous beauty and sharp insight. Created by rotoscoping actors, and then painting each animation cell by hand in oils, the result is an immersive experience of how the artist saw the world while also questioning… Read More »
WE ARE X — Stephen Kijak Interview
It all started with a picture. Stephen Kijak, who has made a career of documenting rock stars, thought he had seen it all, but there was something about Yoshiki that he couldn’t shake. When I spoke with the filmmaker on October 26, 2016 about his documentary, WE ARE X, it was one of the first… Read More »
Signe Baumane and Sturgis Warner on Living with ROCKS IN MY POCKETS
Signe Baumane was asked by an audience member after a screening of ROCKS IN MY POCKETS about how to find meaning in life. It was a big question prompted by a provocative, insightful film about clinical depression. Her answer, which comes towards the end of our interview, was one of the most beautiful meditations on… Read More »
THE HOURS
THE HOURS begins with a suicide, a famous one at that. Virginia Woolf with a fierce deliberateness puts a heavy stone in her pocket and walks into a river. We see her head duck silently into the water and then her body floating delicately away, pulled by the current with a gentle urgency. By the… Read More »