Pauline Kael, Was It Really What She Said?
The greatest movie critic of her generation. Pauline wrote the most incisive and respectful response. It was a gorgeous review of “Blade Runner”…
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Category: Archival Posts
The Banshees of Inisherin (2022) Film Review
Condon is breathtakingly good, capturing every scene she’s in with a mixture of common sense and sadness, but always with a drollness lurking in the background.
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Nitram (2022) Film Review
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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Flee (2021) Film Review
I left “Flee” with that “floating-on-air feeling” that you get after seeing something special. After seeing a masterpiece.
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The Hand of God (2021) Film Review
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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Parallel Mothers (2021) Film Review
Now, ” Live Flesh” has dropped to the number two position. “Parallel Mothers” is the new movie at the top of my treasured Almodóvar catalog.
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West Side Story (2021) Film Review
West Side Story is Spielberg’s Triumph! Of course, it is Anita who is the real star of the movie and Ariana DeBose is astonishing.
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Quo Vadis Aida (2020) Film Review
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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Under The Skin (2014) Film Review
Guys with erect penises walking downward into a transparent ooze, confused, as Scarlett walks on another level above them.
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Take Shelter (2011) Film Review
It boasts a tremendous performance by Michael Shannon as a quiet man, raising a family, who has horrific nightmares and daytime visions of a meteorological disturbance followed by a feeling that we (the Earth) are being visited by something alien.
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Aftersun (2022) Film Review
“Aftersun” is unforgettable movie. Proustian, in that it is both a remembrance of things past and a search of lost time, it’s one of the best films of 2022.
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Causeway (2022) Film Review
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
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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Happening (2022) Film Review
The weeks pass and Anne begins to “show'”. Time is running out. Any attempt at a back street abortion is becoming increasingly dangerous.
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Drive My Car (2021) Film Review
As Yusuke drives into Hiroshima, the opening credits’ role forty minutes into the film. We realize that what we have seen so far is just a prelude to the main story.
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The Power of the Dog (2021) Film Review
“The Power of the Dog” is one of the best films of 2021. Campion directs with an expert hand assisted by Ari Wegner’s cinematography and Jonny Greenwood’s memorable score.
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Spencer (2021) Film Review
Stewart is simply amazing in the role channeling all that star power into a Diana, you feel you know instantly.
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The Worst Person in the World (2021) Film Review
Time stands still as Julie leaves Aksel, frozen in the kitchen as he pours her a cup of coffee, and runs through the streets of daytime Oslo.
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Bodies, Bodies, Bodies (2022) Film Review
Beautifully Queer friendly, the relationship between Bee (Maria Bakalova) and Sophiie (Amanda Stenberg) is the emotional center of the movie.
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Lady Chatterley’s Lover (2022) Film Review
Superb performances by Emma Corrin and Jack O’Connell transform this adaptation into a film of great beauty and, yes, sensuality.
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The Menu (2022) Film Review
There is a fantastic faceoff between Fiennes and a mysterious guest who was not invited. She is played by the extraordinary Anna Taylor-Joy
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The Tale of King Crab (2022) Film Review
The directors are extremely cine-literate. However, their references never seemed forced and I basked in their cinematic vision.
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Great Freedom (2021) Film Review
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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Passing (2021) Film Review
You cannot take your eyes off Ruth Negga’s Claire, a Black woman who can pass for White in New York in 1929.
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Dance of the Forty-One (2020) Film Review
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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Undine (2020) Film Review
Christian Petzold’s direction is so seductive, and the two leads are so effective, that you fall easily for “Undine’s” charms.
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Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) – Film Review
Remember Yeoh in “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”? This is a similar tongue-in-cheek, highly physical, yet surprisingly, touching performance.
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Girl Picture (2022) Film Review
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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God’s Country (2022) Film Review
But the movie belongs to Newton who gives the best performance of her career here. We are completely in her spell.
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The Inspection (2022) Film Review
The revelation is Pope. Those big, beautiful, expressive eyes speak volumes and question volumes. A gay man, you can feel his star presence.
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Till (2022) Film Review
The 2023 Best Actress Oscar Goes To…Danielle Deadwyler in Till. And as she reaches the volta of her magnificent speech she does something extraordinary…
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Watcher (2022) Film Review
A marvelous performance by Maika Monroe, who shares with her namesake a beauty and star quality that gives any movie in which she appears a touch of class.
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The Green Knight (2021) Film Review
David Lowery’s enthralling “The Green Knight”. Alicia Vikander does double duty as a peasant girl, and the mistress of a mysterious household.
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Tick, tick…Boom! (2021) Film Review
Although we know the eventual outcome, there is no great tragedy awaiting us at the end of the movie. In fact, it is a celebration of life.
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The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021) Film Review
“The Tragedy of Macbeth” is filled with brilliant touches. The major reason to see this movie is Kathryn Hunter who plays all three witches.
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Dear Comrades (2020) Film Review
Andrei Konchalovsky’s Searing Indictment of a little-known Khrushchev Era Massacre is his best work in years.
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Good Luck to You Leo Grande (2022) – Film Review
Thompson steals the movie, running through a gamut of emotions from anger, fear, and sadness to moments of sheer bliss.
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Hit the Road (2022) Film Review
The film begins with one of the most memorable opening scenes in recent memory. It’s a glorious and inventive piece of true cinema magic.
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Jockey (2021) Film Review
Collins and Parker have a wonderful rapport based on their shared love of horses, and there might be something deeper between them.
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Blonde (2022) Film Review – Marilyn Monroe is exploited once again
Immersing herself completely in the role of Norma Jean/Marilyn Monroe, Ana de Armas is sensational. And exhausting!
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The Outfit (2022) Film Review
The first half of the film is by far the most nuanced. It relies on Rylance’s near-great, subtle performance to convey the smallest details.
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Tár (2022) Film Review
However, no one seems to have stopped and thought about the age difference between these two maestros. By my calculations, Lenny would have been teaching Lydia when she was five years old!
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White Noise (2022) Film Review
Our savior is Driver, who, against all odds, manages to give another really good performance in inhospitable settings.
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Eurovision Song Contest (2020) Film Review
“Husavik” stands apart with its soaring melody and heartfelt lyrics. The stunning vocal is by Molly Sanden, who sings like her life depended on it.
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Fully Realized Humans (2020) Film Review
Jess Wexler and Joshua Leonard have such a natural chemistry that I assumed that they were a couple in real-life.
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Babylon (2022) Film Review
I had no problem sitting through the movie’s bloated 180-minute running because, through all of this nothingness, five actors manage to make lasting impressions
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Bardo (2022) Film Review
The result is an exhausting piece of self-indulgent filmmaking filled with moments of greatness with one indelible image after another.
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Bones and All (2022) Film Review
Eventually it becomes impossible to feel anything for our unhappy couple, not least because Guadagnino keeps shifting the moral and ethical ground rules.
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The Whale (2022) Film Review
As Charlie, an overweight teacher, Brendan Fraser gives a very sweet and appealing performance in director Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale”.
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CODA (2021) Film Review
There is Ruby/Emilia’s gorgeous voice. Every time she sings it’s a treat. And you’re willing to overlook a lot of small faults when she soars.
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Shiva Baby (2021) Film Review
Finally, a toast, amid all this great food, to four extraordinarily talented actresses: Sennott, Draper, Gordon, and Argon.
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Pieces of a Woman (2020) Film Review
How can an actress who is pushing ninety be the mother of an actress in her late twenties or early thirties? Not impossible, but implausible.
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The Fabelmans (2022) Film Review
He films one of his jock tormentors as a blond God-like figure – I swear, it reminded me of Leni Riefenstahl’s “Olympia.”
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The Son (2022) Film Review
This time the dialogue seems forced, Zeller’s direction seems off. What really destroys this movie is the performance of the actor in the title role.
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Licorice Pizza (2021) Film Review
“Licorice Pizza” and the gay stereotype. Here is a mincing queen with movements so exaggerated he could have Tourette’s syndrome.
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Nightmare Alley (2021) Film Review
Del Toro’s “Nightmare Alley” disappoints. Cate Blanchett’s performance becomes a pastiche and Bradley Cooper sleepwalks through it.
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The Little Things (2021) Film Review
A Great Cast Cannot Save Director John Lee Hancock’s Sleazy Mixture of Forensics and Violence.
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Women Talking (2022) Film Review
Terrified of standing outside of the groupthink and dreading the Hollywood equivalent of being burnt alive in a Florentine piazza…
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She Said (2022) Review…Watch the Money Shots on Your iPhone!
So, my advice is to watch this movie on your iPhone and fast-forward through everything except Morton and Ehle.
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Emily (2022) Film Review
But O’Connor’s greatest failure is not trusting herself to deliver the goods as they were, and she plays with history to her detriment.
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Triangle of Sadness (2022) Film Review
Ostlund’s trite and vulgar satire on the heartlessness of the monied classes is the most overhyped film of the year.
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The French Dispatch (2021) Film Review
“The French Dispatch” is the anthesis of cinema. The boredom felt by the viewer is amplified by the feeling that ennui was the desired effect!
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All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022) Film Review
“All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” ends up falling between two stools and deceives its audience in the process.
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Nothing Compares (2022) Documentary Review
Sinéad Had No Second Act! Unfortunately, the movie agrees. We get Sinéad up to the moment of her self-destruction and no more.
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