Sew Torn movie review: patchwork pastiche
The quirks of this slightly fantastical black-comedy crime thriller are many, varied, and messily disjointed. But there’s a delicious oddness to its unpredictability and its spin on familiar tropes.
Oscars
my picks for tonight’s 97th Academy Awards (the Oscars for 2024’s films) (winners indicated)
I correctly guessed 12 out of the 23 categories, which is exactly as well as I did last year. (Five of my “should win”s did win!) At least I’m consistent.
The Brutalist movie review: red, white, and brutal
Stark and unsentimental, as stubborn and as challenging as its protagonist, and as monumental as his works. Adrien Brody’s performance is extraordinary, full of flinty anger and palpable melancholy.
join me for an online chat about ‘Chariots of Fire’ (now with video!)
Watch me chat about this Oscar-winning Best Picture.
Robot Dreams movie review: sighs of the machines
Immerse yourself in pure unalloyed joy with a sweet, deceptively simple carbon-silicon platonic romance. Even the poignant bittersweetness of this emotional roller coaster is affirming and uplifting.
Kinds of Kindness movie review: twilight zones of contention
A mad monstrosity of a movie: absurdist, enigmatic, perverse. Lanthimos’s typical grotesque humor is on full display. Yay for a film that actually attempts to capture how insane the world is today?
Back to Black movie review: no justice for Amy Winehouse
Marisa Abela is very good as Amy Winehouse, the one saving grace of this cowardly biopic of the wild and wise musician, which hangs its subject out to dry just as the people closest to her did, too.
curated cinema: when fame kills art
The 2015 documentary Amy is on Max in the US and on Prime in the UK (and other services, too).
my picks for tonight’s 96th Academy Awards (the Oscars for 2023’s films) (winners indicated)
I correctly guessed 12 out of the 23 categories, which is a little worse than how I did last year but better than the year before. So about par for the course for me.
loaded question: are American moviegoers getting more comfortable with subtitled films?
Apparently folks are watching everything with subtitles on, even shows and movies in English, for a variety of reasons. Could that be a contributing factor?
