Lady Bird movie review: flights of adolescent angsty (LFF 2017)
An emotional feast full of humor and pathos about the audacity, the wonder, the horror that is female adolescence. Beautiful, bittersweet, and very generous.
2000s
Birthright: A War Story documentary review: how America hates women
An enraging, essential documentary rundown of all the ways that women’s rights, agency, and bodily autonomy are under attack in the US. It’s not just about abortion.
The Journey movie review: a civil end to war
This fictional dialogue inspired by a private meeting between real-life enemies can’t muster up more than the usual banalities about the ethics of politics and war.
Moonlight movie review: the empathy machine in action (but only if you’re watching)
Luminous and plaintive, Moonlight is emotional virtual reality, transforming a unique human experience into something universal and unforgettable.
#LFF2016: Down Under, Indivisible, Wild
Quick takes from the 60th London Film Festival, with public screenings from October 5th-16th, 2016.
War Dogs movie review: sob havoc over this gun fun run
A comedy only in the bleakest way, satire only in the sense that the whole world has become a parody of itself. Appalling and amusing in equal measure.
Requiem for the American Dream and The Divide documentaries review: economic inequality for all
Two powerful documentaries look at the ever-growing wealth gap, and introduce us to some of those struggling through the resultant financial insecurity.
Spotlight movie review: all the pope’s men
An elegy for old-school reportage and the people who pursue it, and a journalistic procedural with a snappy rush of urgent discovery and consequence.
The Program movie review: on your bike and follow the money (LFF 2015)
Pretty much strictly for fans of Ben Foster and Chris O’Dowd, who are both superb here. Probably not for fans of Lance Armstrong (if he still has any left).
Lone Survivor review: never get involved in a land war in Asia
Acknowledges the powerful fraternity of soldiers without being jingoistic, and depicts the intensity and adrenaline of a battlefield without being pornographic.
