New Town Utopia documentary review: the future that never was
A lovely, melancholy documentary about the planned community of Basildon in England… but really about squandering of postwar optimism with the rise of neoliberalism.
reviews
The Judge documentary review: social (and legal) justice warrior
A portrait as delightful as its subject: Kholoud Al-Faqih, a pioneer of Islamic jurisprudence and as fiery as any Western feminist. Essential viewing for its smashing of stereotypes.
Tully movie review: thou shalt be nicer to yourself
A movie unlike any we’ve seen before, one deeply, intimately sympathetic to modern motherhood — to modern womanhood. Brilliantly wise and funny, and profoundly moving.
RBG documentary review: though she be but little she is fierce
A marvelous, funny, deeply moving biography of Ruth Bader Ginsburg from her rise as a legal champion of women’s rights in the 1970s to her ascension as a Supreme Court justice and social-media hero “Notorious RBG.”
Avengers: Infinity War movie review: it’s all been leading to this
Ten years of Marvel superheroism culminates in a battle for the universe itself. Exhausting, bitterly humorous, and gripped in a stunning finality, it’s almost too much to take in, yet somehow not enough.
Beast movie review: a monstrous love
Electrifying and genre-busting, this romantic mystery thriller toys with our expectations and plays with ambiguity. Jessie Buckley and Johnny Flynn are mesmerizing separately and explosive together.
Mercury 13 documentary review: the even righter stuff
An essential documentary look at yet another example of historical feminism that should never have been forgotten: the first American in space might have and probably should have been a woman.
Sweet Country movie review: an essential confrontation with the ugly not-so-past past
As harshly beautiful as its landscape, this is a stark corrective to the American western it echoes, and a pragmatic confrontation with the deep, tenacious roots of modern racism.
Let the Sunshine In (Un beau soleil intérieur) movie review: her own worst enemy
Juliette Binoche’s search for midlife love is drenched in ennui and punctuated by weary philosophizing. There’s not a lot of satisfaction in it, nor much by way of resolution. Very French.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society movie review: the stories too painful to tell
A wonderfully old-fashioned tearjerker, with a thoroughly delightful cast, where cosy quaint Englishness is leavened by a harsh reality of World War II that pop culture has ignored.
