Overlord movie review: underwhelmed
This Nazis-with-supernatural-weapons horror schlock drags its feet getting to its fantastical elements and then does absolutely nothing interesting with them, just wallows in dull, rote gore and grue.
Nazis
Memoir of War (La Douleur) movie review: woman on the homefront
Marguerite Duras’s semifictionalized memoir of psychological survival and emotional endurance in Paris during the Nazi occupation makes an uneasy, listless transition to the screen.
movies by or about women opening US/Can from Wed Aug 15
Adele Lim and Lea Carpenter cowrite two of the week’s wide releases, (respectively) Crazy Rich Asians and Mile 22. Progress!
1945 movie review: a reckoning for the collaborators
A quiet horror movie about grief and regret as spiritual possession, about rationalization and denial as immorality. We don’t tell ourselves stories that whisper, as this one does, The Nazis had help. We need to.
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.
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.
Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story documentary review: beauty is a beast
The infuriatingly tragic true story of the Hollywood superstar whose brain was ignored because she was beautiful. A stupendous tribute to a remarkable woman.
Another Mother’s Son movie review: punching Nazis, mom style
Not alt-history but a true story from a Nazi-occupied English-speaking place, a hugely relevant reminder that resistance to injustice is an absolute imperative.
The Last Laugh documentary review: punching Nazis (with comedy)
Analyzing jokes can ruin humor, but not here. This is a provocative, hilarious, and important discussion of comedy taboos, who gets to transgress them, and why.
Denial movie review: a film for the resistance
A terrific legal procedural about defending factual truth and smacking dishonest sowers of doubt. An essential film for our era of “alternative facts.”
