One Battle After Another (2025) Watch it on your cell phone. C+
When you take away all the violence and the mayhem, this is a two daddies fighting over one baby movie. Strip away the facade, it’s old-time Hollywood schmaltz.
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Category: Film Reviews
The History of Sound (Oliver Hermanus) It’s so Nice! (B-)
After a while, though, you begin to feel beaten down by the sheer refinement of it all. The perfectly framed, perfectly edited tableaux. The exquisite, sparingly used music score. The subtle, to the point of being abstruse, performances of the stars
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Blue Moon (2025) Film Review B+
The story unfolds, in real time, almost entirely within the confines of Sardi’s bar in New York, where Hart spends the evening grappling with his fading relevance, alcoholism, homosexuality and mental health struggles.
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The Ugly Stepsister (2025) Film Review A+
Our heroine suffers through the most hideous body sculpting indignities, heaped on her by the effete and sadistic proto-plastic surgeon, Dr. Esthetique.
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Echo Valley (2025) Film Review B+
Director Michael Pearce moves with visceral precision and Julianne Moore shows us, yet again, what a magnificent actress she can be.
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Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (2023) Film Review A-
We also discover, in a beautifully acted scene by McAdams, who steals the picture, that Barbara is estranged from her devoutly Christian parents.
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The Delinquents (2023) Borges Anyone? A
With its labyrinthine structure, discursive storyline, and exploration of themes such as duality, reality, identity, and the nature of time, the movie is reminiscent of the great Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges
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Eileen (2023) Hits All the Right Buttons A
Oldroyd pulls out all the stops and the three actresses complement one another so perfectly that we end up savoring 2023’s best scene.
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Fallen Leaves (2023) Is An Affair to Remember A+
The leads are just about perfect, and the film is enlivened at every turn by the director’s usual penchant for deadpan humor.
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Godland (2023) Hlynur Pálmason’s Masterpiece A+
Pálmason, his cinematographer (Maria von Hausswolff), and his composer (Alex Zhang Hungtai) evoke colonial memories reminiscent of films like “Black Robe”.
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How to Have Sex (2023) Mia McKenna-Bruce shines in Manning Walker’s debut A-
“How to Have Sex” follows three teenage girls on vacation in Greece. Mia McKenna-Bruce delivers a heartbreaking performance as Tara. One of 2023’s best.
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Maestro (2023) Bradley Cooper’s Vain Impersonation of a Vain Man. B+
Leaving out vast chunks of the great conductor’s life, Cooper gives a vain impersonation of a vain man while Carey Mulligan takes the acting honors.
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The Road Dog (2023) Road Movie Meets Stand-Up B+
Doug Stanhope is “The Road Dog” of the title in writer/director Greg Glienna’s inspired blend of the road movie and stand-up comedy.
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Saltburn (2023) Emerald Fennell’s Sophomore Triumph A
Fennell’s writing and directing are brilliantly inventive, with humor, tragedy, and horror mixing perfectly. She gets immense support from her cinematographer, Linus Sandgren, whose work here is truly breathtaking.
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Shortcomings (2023) An Asian-American Comedy. B+
Min, playing a dislikeable character, manages to make Ben, if not exactly likable, then certainly sympathetic. Both Sherry Cola and Debby Ryan are superb.
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Sick of Myself (2023) Film Review B+
If you can take moments of extreme gore and disfigurement – it succeeds more as a horror movie than as a piece of social satire – you could do worse.
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You Can Live Forever (2023) Film Review A-
Laporte is tremendous in portraying a complex character who appears to have an “escape” but really doesn’t. It’s a heartbreaking performance.
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Bodies, Bodies, Bodies (2022) Film Review A-
Beautifully Queer friendly, the relationship between Bee (Maria Bakalova) and Sophiie (Amanda Stenberg) is the emotional center of the movie.
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Causeway (2022) Film Review A
And Henry gives a tour de force performance that matches his spine-tingling monologue in “If Beale Street Could Talk”. Like Lawrence he is one of the all-time greats.
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Emily The Criminal (2022) Film Review A
Plaza’s performance is something to behold. All of that nervous energy is now bursting out in a performance that is always true and believable.
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Girl Picture (2022) Film Review B+
Aamu Milonoff is exceptionally good, giving a beautifully grounded yet magical performance. The kind that makes you sit up and take notice.
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Nitram (2022) Film Review A+
As for Judy Davis she gives what is probably her most outstanding performance, which means it’s one of the greatest performances ever captured on film.
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The Tale of King Crab (2022) Film Review A-
The directors are extremely cine-literate. However, their references never seemed forced and I basked in their cinematic vision.
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White Noise (2022) Film Review B
Our savior is Driver, who, against all odds, manages to give another really good performance in inhospitable settings.
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Flee (2021) Film Review A+
I left “Flee” with that “floating-on-air feeling” that you get after seeing something special. After seeing a masterpiece.
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Great Freedom (2021) Film Review A-
Meise directs what must be some of the most beautiful and heartfelt scenes ever captured on film between two men in love.
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The Hand of God (2021) Film Review A+
Memories of Fellini and the Taviani Brothers at their peak. It’s his “Amarcord” (I remember). It’s also his “La Dolce Vita.”
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Shiva Baby (2021) Film Review B
Finally, a toast, amid all this great food, to four extraordinarily talented actresses: Sennott, Draper, Gordon, and Argon.
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Dance of the Forty-One (2020) Film Review A-
Ignacio de la Torre was the son in law of Mexico’s president for life and dictator Porfirio Díaz’s. But he was leading a double life with his lover Evaristo.
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Quo Vadis Aida (2020) Film Review A+
Aida knows the horrific fate that awaits her husband and two sons if they are found and, for two hours, you watch as she frantically tries to get them out.
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