Oscar Nominated Live Action Shorts (89th Academy Awards) review
My favorite of the nominees is “Sing,” a movie for right-now with its pushback against a bullying authority figure and its gently effective defiance.
romance
Fifty Shades Darker movie review: where is the fantasy?
Thank god this insult of a movie doesn’t try to fool us into believing that the controlling Christian Grey is appealing. That would be even more horrific…
La La Land movie review: city of stars, shining just for us
A marvel. Funny and exuberant and bittersweet and cliché-busting and unexpected as hell. We are going to need more movies like this one.
Passengers movie review: lost in sexist space
After a few quick nods to the profoundly unethical act at its core, it shrugs it off and uses it as the basis for its fairy-tale romance. This is not okay.
Frank & Lola movie review: the pain of men (it’s all women’s fault)
Ridiculous coincidence drives the plot, but a reliance on outdated notions of gender expectations is what makes this neonoir such an infuriating experience.
A United Kingdom movie review: a love that changed the world
Insistent chemistry between David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike fuels a true story of passionate romance with an urgent message about love as radical and political.
Allied movie review: movie spies with delicious old-fashioned mystique
An elegant potboiler that judiciously balances psychological and physical suspense, one that feels like a romantic drama from WWII only recently rediscovered.
Fire Song movie review: finding a path through a broken world
A sensitive portrait, but often a wretched one, of young people at crossroads, set on a Canadian First Nations reservation but with resonance far beyond.
#LFF2016: A Date for Mad Mary, Chasing Asylum, The Dreamed Ones
Quick takes from the 60th London Film Festival, with public screenings from October 5th-16th, 2016.
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.
