A Quiet Place movie review: hushed horror
An apocalypse unlike any onscreen before. A film often almost unbearably tense, in part because it audaciously reconsiders the role sound plays in eliciting our emotional response.
drama
Journeyman movie review: men and all the feels
Sensitive drama about traumatic brain injury, featuring an extraordinary performance by Paddy Considine and much brutal honesty about men’s inability to deal with their own emotions.
I Kill Giants movie review: the terrible burden of secret fears
A movie as thrillingly weird as its protagonist. We are totally enrapt by the wonder and the terror of her imagination, and the power of it to create joy and solace.
Crowhurst movie review: the worse things that happen at sea
A little bit psychedelic, a little bit queasy, a little bit experimental, a lot existential, this is a jarring, visceral portrait of the around-the-world sailor in over his head.
Midnight Sun movie review: Cupid’s shot in the dark
Ah, it’s another “teen falling in love while dying beautifully” romance. When it isn’t sappy and predictable, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Its young couple is perfectly charming, though.
Prodigy movie review: little girl lost
This low-budget science-fiction film has an ambition that exceeds its reach, and has nothing to surprise the self-respecting geek a movie like this one is aimed at.
Mary Magdalene movie review: the Gospel of Mary
A fiercely feminist and proudly revisionist historical drama that offers a powerful and much-needed rebuke to modern Christianity. Enrapturingly beautiful and intensely emotional.
Submission movie review: a hot take on gender power dynamics from opposite-world
In the moment of #MeToo, this tale of the relationship between a male professor and a young female student is howlingly out of step and outrageously tone deaf. And that’s on top of its tedious clichés.
Oscar Nominated Live Action Shorts 2018 (90th Academy Awards) review
My pick: I think the quietly shocking “DeKalb Elementary” may win for its very of-the-moment story about a school office worker’s attempt to de-escalate an invading gunman’s rage via patience and empathy.
Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts 2018 (90th Academy Awards) review
My pick: I suspect that this year’s winner will be “Garden Party,” a spectacular debut from new French animation studio Illogic that I am sure we will be seeing a lot more stunning work from.
