weekend watchlist: two tales for Pride Month that cry out for simple human acceptance
Plus grounded human experiences, from escaping a cult to — yes — doing an espionage. (First published June 3rd, 2022, on Substack and Patreon.)
Alessandro Nivola
The Many Saints of Newark movie review: far from heaven
The performances are terrific, the evocation of the period striking, but it feels redundant, more GoodFellas-lite than The Sopranos, and with several TV seasons’ worth of story crammed in.
Devil’s Knot movie review: well-worn tracks
Atom Egoyan is all over the real-life case of American injustice surrounding the West Memphis Three. But sadly, I’m not sure why.
Howl (review)
James Franco’s elucidation of Allen Ginsberg is soaring in its warmth and sincerity. The words are (mostly) the writer’s, but the vitality and the passion are all Franco’s: he makes the poet breathe for us today in a way that feels entirely modern and relevant.
Coco Before Chanel (review)
Audrey Tautou looks *amazing,* surrounded by women who flounce around like fluffy Edwardian fruit cups. But moments like that — in which you really feel the impact of Chanel’s legacy — are, *tant pis,* all too rare…
I interview Paul Schneider (and others)
You’ve seen Paul Schneider in movies like Lars and the Real Girl and Away We Go, and he’s in Parks & Recreation on NBC, which just had its second season premiere last night. And now he’s starring in Bright Star, Jane Campion’s new movie about the poet John Keats and his romance with Fanny Brawne, … more…
trailer break: ‘Coco Before Chanel’
Take a break from work: watch a trailer… This must be the international trailer: even trailers for arthouse releases that will get limited play in the U.S. and Canada never get subtitles — they get cleverly edited to eliminate any dialogue that will suggest that the film is not in English. And I’m glad I … more…
