“My Father’s Shadow” Is Intensely—Yet Obliquely—Autobiographical
Most of the movie takes place in the span of a single day, and two clocks, political and personal, seem to be ticking out of synch, urgently and discordantly. Folarin’s political…
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the current cinema
In “Pillion,” Gay B.D.S.M. Passions Edge Toward Dom-Com
Anchored by Alexander Skarsgård and Harry Melling’s superb performances, the British director Harry Lighton’s feature début brightens the bleak novel it’s based on. Source link
Challenging Official Histories in “Natchez” and “Mr. Nobody Against Putin”
Rev displays the rhetorical power, leavened with humor and warmth, of a skilled public speaker, but many others are charismatic, too. There’s Deborah Cosey, the first Black member of the…
The Zealous Voyagers of “Magellan” and “The Testament of Ann Lee”
Where does such a charge leave Magellan, despoiler of every Eden he encounters? The film, to its credit, does not skimp on paradisiacal visions. Every shot of the tropics is a painterly…
“Young Mothers” Is a Gentle Gift from the Dardenne Brothers
Goodness is not hard to find in “Young Mothers.” The film is set in and around a maternity home in Liège where the staff look after their charges, all teen-agers, with tough-minded…
“Marty Supreme” ’s Megawatt Personality
Josh Safdie’s hectic new film “Marty Supreme,” set in 1952, mainly in New York, is, essentially, “Uncut Gems” but with a happy ending. That recklessly exuberant 2019 drama, which Safdie…
The Lovably Fragile Exes of “Is This Thing On?”
The invention, though, comes from real life. Alex’s experience is loosely modelled on that of John Bishop, a British pharmaceutical salesman who, with no standup experience, began…
“The Secret Agent” Is a Political Thriller Teeming with Life
Meanwhile, a real shark has washed ashore; the movie’s MacGuffin is a human leg found in the creature’s belly. To investigate, the city’s wily and pompous chief of police, Euclides…
“Hamnet” Feels Elemental, but Is It Just Highly Effective Grief Porn?
Zhao’s first three features were steeped in documentary realism, shot with a sturdy, windswept lyricism and abounding in nonprofessional actors. Then came her fourth picture, the clunky…
“Sirāt” Is a Harrowing, Exhilarating Dance of Death
The rave comes to an abrupt stop, and the story, which Laxe scripted with Santiago Fillol, takes off like a shot. Armed soldiers turn up and order the ravers to leave; the world, it…
The Bad Show-Biz Dads of “Sentimental Value” and “Jay Kelly”
In new films from Joachim Trier and Noah Baumbach, success in filmmaking proves depressingly incompatible with success in fatherhood. Source link
Emma Stone’s Apocalyptic Showdown Blooms in “Bugonia”
Teddy’s reasoning is a confusion of save-the-world alarmism, garden-variety derangement, unhealed trauma, and single-minded revenge. He’s a beekeeper, and he blames Auxolith’s pesticides…
Nia DaCosta’s “Hedda” Shoots Straight
Wresting “Hedda Gabler” from its theatrical confines, DaCosta effects a major structural transformation with graceful ingenuity: the party, which constitutes the entire field of action, is…
Art and Life in Richard Linklater’s “Blue Moon” and “Nouvelle Vague”
Leave it to Richard Linklater to see how, in art, the fundamental things apply. In his two new movies—“Blue Moon,” about the lyricist Lorenz Hart, and “Nouvelle Vague,” about the director…
“After the Hunt” Is a Pleasurably Ludicrous House of Cards
In Luca Guadagnino’s film, Julia Roberts plays a Yale professor forced to choose sides when a student accuses a colleague of sexual assault. Source link
“One Battle After Another” Is a Powerhouse of Tenderness and Fury
At a crucial moment in “One Battle After Another,” Paul Thomas Anderson’s electrifying new action thriller, someone cries out, “Who are you?!” A fair question. The man being asked is Bob…
“A Big Bold Beautiful Journey” Is None of Those Things
If movies were given scores as figure skaters are, fantasy would start with a high rating for technical difficulty. The landings of the genre are hard to stick, because fantasy, by…
“Eden” Is a Messy Survival Thriller with Nietzschean Appeal
The new movie “Eden” features bursts of foul temper, wild sex, grisly violence, and nihilist ideology—a departure, you might say, for Ron Howard, a director whose cinematic disposition can…
“Splitsville” Plays Infidelity for Laughs; “A Little Prayer” Shows What’s Really at Stake
In the studiedly rambunctious comedy “Splitsville,” Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin play a pair of homewreckers. The home, a beachside vacation pad with natural-wood siding and…
“Highest 2 Lowest” Marks a Conservative Pivot for Spike Lee
It’s fascinating when filmmakers make drastic late-career shifts, as Martin Scorsese did with “The Wolf of Wall Street” and Francis Ford Coppola recently did with “Megalopolis.” Now it’s…
“Weapons,” “Harvest,” and the Shackles of the Horror Genre
Horror is an accursed genre. Because it promises to deliver a specific sensational effect, its stories are obliged to fit into preordained patterns. Its popularity depends on…
“Eddington” Is a Lethally Self-Satisfied COVID Satire
“Eddington” is a slog, but a slog with ambitions—and its director and screenwriter, Ari Aster, is savvy enough to cultivate an air of mystery about what those ambitions are. His earlier…
The Simplistic Moral Lessons of “Superman”
The world may be going to hell, but the writer and director James Gunn has graced it with a sunshine “Superman.” The most recent installments in the franchise—Zack Snyder’s diptych “Man of…
“F1” is a Well-Tooled Engine of Entertainment
In “F1,” a snazzy piece of blockbuster engineering, Brad Pitt plays Sonny Hayes, a devotee of fast cars, beautiful women, and simple living. A professional gambler and an occasional speed…