my ranking of 2023’s movies has begun!
There are only a few films on it so far, but the year is young…
AWFJ
AWFJ 2022 EDA Awards winners announced
The Banshees of Inisherin, Everything Everywhere All at Once, and Women Talking tie for the most awards, at four apiece.
AWFJ 2021 EDA Awards winners announced
And the winners are…
One Night in Miami… movie review: the past, still prologue
An electrifying philosophical fantasia that imagines four towering figures of 1960s America arguing over how to navigate racism as Black men. Enraging, but also thrilling, bursting with cinematic joy.
Cowboys movie review: a new kind of father-and-son tale
A complete upending of the western, about not wide open spaces but close-in intimacy, with an unusual female gaze and a hugely provocative dare to gender expectations. Both ironic and transformative.
AWFJ 2020 EDA Awards winners announced
And the winners are…
Farewell Amor movie review: family ties undone, and forged again (LFF 2020)
Achieves that rare cinematic feat of being specific and universal at the same time. A lovely film, plaintive and poignant, with exquisite performances from a beguiling cast, and ultimately hopeful.
Proxima movie review: the work of the world
Brings a fundamental new humanity to the story of those who court great danger in order to advance human knowledge. Eva Green is immense. Writer-director Alice Winocour’s compassion is achingly acute.
Blackbird movie review: the bell tolls, ever so tastefully
The to-die-for cast can’t quite save this melodrama from its trite obviousness, in which rage and grief are matters of tasteful, upscale lifestyle. But they at least make it passingly watchable.
Mulan (2020) movie review: girl (and film) at war with the world
Acceptably inoffensive, if less than wholly engaging. At least Liu’s strong, stately Mulan is a wonderful role model for girls who aren’t much interested in conformity and adhering to expectations.
