new and ongoing dvd/blu/vod releases, US/Can, Oct 20–23
A simple listing of new releases and other stuff currently available.
new and ongoing dvd/blu/vod releases, UK/Ire, Oct 19–23
A simple listing of new releases and other stuff currently available.
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm movie review: punching way the hell up (#AmazonPrime)
A work of breathtaking audacity. This is as perilous as comedy gets, and it’s very, very funny, often shockingly so. Sacha Baron Cohen’s scathing cultural strikes land like extinction-level asteroids.
Love and Monsters movie review: building a future at the end of the world
This pleasantly silly-sad apocalypse, melancholy with a dash of optimism, smashes clichés and finds fresh angles on the familiar. Dylan O’Brien has a self-deprecating charm; there’s a great dog, too.
new and ongoing dvd/blu/vod releases, US/Can, Oct 13–16
A simple listing of new releases and other stuff currently available.
new and ongoing dvd/blu/vod releases, UK/Ire, Oct 12–16
A simple listing of new releases and other stuff currently available.
Totally Under Control documentary review: detailing Trump’s coronavirus catastrophe
If you’ve been paying attention, not much is surprising in muckraker Alex Gibney’s timeline-driven rundown of Trump’s COVID crimes. But there is immense value in seeing it all laid out so clearly.
new and ongoing dvd/blu/vod releases, US/Can, Oct 06–09
A simple listing of new releases and other stuff currently available.
Faith Based movie review: God is in the details
I love the initial cynicism of this sendup of Christian cinema, and love even more how it goes on to punch up rather than down, and embraces sincerity and friendship with good cheer and gentle zing.
new and ongoing dvd/blu/vod releases, UK/Ire, Oct 05–09
A simple listing of new releases and other stuff currently available.
2067 (aka Chronicle: 2067) movie review: future schlock
Generously, this is a 15-minute short padded out to an unforgivable, patience-trying two hours, there’s so little in the way of fresh ideas or engaging characters. Kudos for making time travel boring.
All In: The Fight for Democracy documentary review: the pushback against voter suppression (#AmazonPrime)
Enlightening, enraging history of all the ways in which the United States has tried to bar citizens from voting, plus a primer on what Americans can do right now to ensure that our voices are heard.
new and ongoing dvd/blu/vod releases, US/Can, Sep 29–Oct 02
A simple listing of new releases and other stuff currently available.
new and ongoing dvd/blu/vod releases, UK/Ire, Oct 02
A simple listing of new releases and other stuff currently available.
on Christmas coming early, and the international differences in pigs-in-blankets
2020 gonna 2020.
I Am Woman movie review: more a purr than a roar
A winsome Tilda Cobham-Hervey leads a rote rags-to-riches tale, though its rampant sexism is a villain women will recognize. Needs to be seen, even if it’s not quite the tribute Helen Reddy deserves.
The Binge: Years and Years (#BBC/#HBO)
I’m obsessed with this British miniseries following one family through a dystopian 2020s. It’s completely harrowing, very nearly soul-crushing. Yet I cling to its tenuous optimism and profound beauty.
H Is for Happiness movie review: Q is for Quirk, F is for Forced
Offbeat portrait of an unconventional girl is all over the place, sometimes detouring into the cringeworthy, as it tries to depict the emotional familial confusion its tween protagonist is navigating.
Blackbird movie review: the bell tolls, ever so tastefully
The to-die-for cast can’t quite save this melodrama from its trite obviousness, in which rage and grief are matters of tasteful, upscale lifestyle. But they at least make it passingly watchable.
Mulan (2020) movie review: girl (and film) at war with the world (#DisneyPlus)
Acceptably inoffensive, if less than wholly engaging. At least Liu’s strong, stately Mulan is a wonderful role model for girls who aren’t much interested in conformity and adhering to expectations.
#Unfit: The Psychology of Donald Trump documentary review: science backs up the horror we can all plainly see
Mental-health professionals, bound by ethics to point out danger, discuss how President Donald Trump is uniquely dangerous, a literal menace to society. Nay, not “discuss”: they are screaming it.
the summer of my discontent is over (she said optimistically)…
It’s the last day of August. I have chosen to take this as a sign that it’s time to leave my funk behind and kick myself back into creative gear.
Bill & Ted Face the Music movie review: not-so-strange things are afoot…
The chill zen and goofy charm of GenX’s philosopher-fools remains intact, but their latest adventure is too familiar a retelling. Still, “Be excellent to each other” won’t ever not be worth heeding.
Tesla movie review: less than electrifying
Hawke is warm and empathetic, but the film’s artificiality is at odds with a celebration of the visionary’s life and work, and finally offputting. I wish this were either more earnest or more bonkers.
She Dies Tomorrow movie review: when it feels like we all die tomorrow
Filmmaker Amy Seimetz evokes a taut, cursed mundanity, an allegorical contemplation of culture at its most basic level: when it fails and everyone is hopeless. Accidentally hits our pandemic mood.
Starting at Zero: Reimagining Education in America documentary review: brave new day care?
Is this a documentary about quality day care for the smallest kids, or a slick PowerPoint presentation for policy wonks about the economic need to churn out cooperative corporate cogs from babyhood?
it’s too hot to think; my laptop concurs
This is all very frustrating. I was looking forward to getting back to work this week, and nature has thwarted me.
The Secret Garden movie review: weedy with misplaced eeriness
Pointless adaptation of the beloved children’s novel soaked in a gothic spookiness that seems to deliberately misunderstand the story. Neither literal enough nor magical enough. My heart was unmoved.
The Secret: Dare to Dream movie review: I’m positive this is awful
Nice Guy garbage man Josh Lucas negs sad sack Katie Holmes. Based on the pernicious self-help philosophy that insists that everything wrong with your life is your fault. You know: feel-good romance!
I’m back for more BBC World Service’s “The Arts Hour” again today, Saturday, August 1st
My second pandemic-lockdown, recorded-from-home appearance…
Radioactive movie review: science, bitch (#AmazonPrime)
Rosamund Pike is perfection in this intellectual romance, an unsentimental portrait of a woman striving to be appreciated for her mind at a time even more anti-woman than today. Feminist and flinty.
I hate this timeline…
During lockdown I have been on a roller coaster of emotional reaction when it comes to my creative work…
First Cow movie review: new world, same as the old world
A simple story about friendship. A revisionist Western reworking fables of masculinity and frontiers. A softly savage deconstruction of the American dream, of capitalism itself. An astonishing movie.
Last and First Men movie review: a sobering message from the future (#EIFF2020)
A mesmerizing, haunting contemplation of the headiest issues we ever confront: evolution and extinction, the depths of time, the meaning of life. Screams with ominous alarm for the human future.
John Lewis: Good Trouble documentary review: how to bend the arc of history
Essential portrait of the US Congressman and civil-rights activist, for its lessons in the power of passive resistance to injustice, and its underscoring of how America has regressed in recent years.
Greyhound movie review: Tom Hanks goes a-LARPing (#AppleTVPlus)
How very kind of Tom Hanks to lend his gravitas and inescapable likability to a bunch of WWII naval reenactors on their weekend-getaway “crossing the north Atlantic in 1942 dodging U-boats” campaign.
The Sunlit Night movie review: room to breathe and think in wide-open spaces
A ramble with appealingly messy people rethinking their priorities that is perhaps more charming and touching than it might have been if this pandemic summer didn’t have so many of us doing the same.
have you found a new movie normal?
I’d love to hear how, as a movie fan, you’re coping with this new entertainment environment.
The Old Guard movie review: saving the world, one century at a time (#Netflix)
There’s plenty of bruising action, but this fantastic slice of comic-book pulp emphasizes the humanity of its immortal heroes. Gina Prince-Bythewood elevates the familiar with emotional authenticity.
Little Girl (Petite Fille) documentary review: what little girls are made of (#EIFF2020)
Lovely verité documentary about eight-year-old Sasha, who was born into a boy’s body but is definitely a girl. An inspiring portrait of someone asking for so little: to be accepted for who she is.
my 2020 film ranking at the year’s midway point
A sneak peek at my FULL ongoing ranking of 2020’s new movies. (This post is free for all. Join my Patreon to keep up with the list as it grows over the rest of the year.)
Anthropocene: The Human Epoch documentary review: the destruction of our planet, in pictures (#EIFF2020)
Astonishing: sometimes oddly beautiful but mostly like sci-fi horror. An anti-meditation nightmare, a call to arms if only we were ready to finally address our thoughtless impact on planet Earth.
Disclosure documentary review: what the sorry state of trans representation onscreen means for everyone (#Netflix)
Terrific doc unpacks trans representation in Hollywood, unspoken attitudes about gender, sexuality, and race that most people, trans and cis, may never have clocked before… ideas that affect us all.
Family Romance, LLC. movie review: coming to your emotional rescue
A marvelously strange and perplexing meta meditation on human connection and ritual, on fact and fiction, on emotional truth. An existential cinematic rabbit hole as only Werner Herzog can deliver.
To Kid or Not to Kid and Seahorse: The Dad Who Gave Birth documentaries review: childfree or child-bound?
Two intimate documentaries about atypical paths to parenthood — or not — invite us to re-evaluate our assumptions, expand our thinking, and be more accommodating of the full spectrum of humanity.
the Flick Filosopher daily email digest is now the weekly email digest
I have an email list. Did you know that? You probably didn’t: I haven’t had any signup forms around here prominently for a while.
Fanny Lye Deliver’d movie review: birth of the modern woman (#EIFF2020)
Maxine Peake is stupendous in this deliciously audacious period horror, ambitious in emotional scope and with monsters who feel unexpectedly modern: men who wield religion as a tool of oppression.
My Spy movie review: and you can keep him, little girl (#AmazonPrime)
A “family” comedy about nuclear terrorism, the incompetent CIA agent on the case, and his 9-year-old sidekick. Desperately unfunny, thoroughly misjudged. We are in the worst and the dumbest timeline.
as I’ve been saying: YES, the cultural context and content of a film MATTERS
But now a man is saying it, so maybe someone will listen?
The Last Tree movie review: boy interrupted
An astonishingly beautiful coming-of-age story of startling specificity and intense intimacy, yet universal in its compassionate depiction of a child’s perspective dawning on mature self-awareness.
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