Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them movie review: reparo movens ad imaginem
Forget about magical creatures: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them could use some help finding itself, and in figuring out who its protagonist is.
1920s
Marguerite movie review: is ignorance bliss?
A bravura dramedy that beautifully balances tragedy and comedy and asks a tricky question: Is it better to be cynical about art, or happily undiscriminating?
The Danish Girl movie review: sometimes it’s hard to be a woman
Safe, conventional, and not particularly sympathetic to women, cis or trans. Mistakes the external signifiers of femininity with actually being a woman.
Magic in the Moonlight movie review: the spirit moves me
A flimsy trifle, but a diverting one. Colin Firth is absolutely hilarious, and the re-creation of the 1920s French Riviera is gorgeous.
Blancanieves review: silent style
A valentine to early filmmaking, this silent-movie pastiche is gorgeous, lush, and bursting with passion. It presents a familiar fairy tale with a wondrous air of freshness and newfound intimacy.
The Patriot (1928 retro trailer)
The very last silent film ever to be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars… until, we may presume, The Artist is nominated on Tuesday.
The Artist (review)
Who does this? Who makes a black-and-white movie in the 21st century? Who makes a silent film in the 21st century? The Artist: Not in 3D, not in IMAX, not even in widescreen!
Easy Virtue (review)
If Noel Coward had written *Meet the Parents,* it might look something like this: witty and wise and totally lacking in poop jokes.
Chicago (review)
Their *Chicago* — based on the stage musical by John Kander, Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse — is utterly singable, danceable, cheerable, with musical numbers that straddle the unwillingness of today’s movie audiences to suspend our disbelief about movie characters breaking into song unless they’re Disney lions or talking candelabra.
Shadow of the Vampire movie review: being Nosferatu
What if the dude who played Nosferatu in that great old 1922 silent German horror movie was actually really a vampire? Cool.
