Sing movie review: hey, kids, let’s put on a show!
Smart, sweet, gently funny, with a wonderfully exuberant voice performance by Matthew McConaughey that hints at fresh new realms animated movies can reach.
music
A Street Cat Named Bob movie review: pussyfooting around reality
This true story falls down a bizarre rabbit hole of gentle condescension about how to solve the problems of poverty and drug addiction.
The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble documentary review: stronger and (more danceable) together
This soul-refreshing documentary celebrates difference as a beautiful thing vital to making great art, and for making a better world for everyone.
Ordinary World (aka Geezer) movie review: from manchild to midlife crisis
May be unique in the cinematic annals of manchildren in that its protagonist goes from overgrown adolescent to midlife crisis without any intervening adulthood.
Urban Hymn movie review: the healing power of music
A startling portrait of girls at risk, with a magnificent performance by gonna-be-a-star Letitia Wright. Lovely, moving, utterly unsentimental.
The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years documentary review: yeah yeah yeah
There’s not a lot new here, but the vintage footage is fab, as is the much-needed reminder that the supposedly innocent past was hardly innocent at all.
Kubo and the Two Strings movie review: quest for family
Magic, music, and monsters come together to create a marvelous fairy tale that’s scary, sweet, and full of tough emotions that kids’ movies often avoid.
cult classic film virgin: Sid & Nancy
Riveting and repulsive, with a claustrophobic perspective that mirrors its subjects: all id, all in the moment. But it’s also shallow, all on the surface.
Miss Sharon Jones! documentary review: get up, get on back up
Cheer-worthy portrait of a singer for whom overcoming adversity has been a mainstay, and a testament to the power of music and family to keep a gal going.
Florence Foster Jenkins movie review: don’t worry that it’s not good enough for anyone else to hear
When FFJ sticks to farce, it works wonderfully, like something P.G. Wodehouse might have loved. But the longer it goes on, the more maudlin it gets.
