Joni Mitchell – Painting with Words and Music A+
Joni dazzles in the best of her three live albums. It helps that the show is built around “Hejira”. Of the 19 tracks, 4 are from this album.
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Category: Streaming
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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Echo Valley (2025) is Another Julianne Moore Triumph 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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Beyond Utopia (2023) is one of the Best Documentaries of Recent Years A+
Director/Editor Madeleine Gavin masterfully combines these two storylines with some astonishing insights into what it’s like to live in North Korea
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Last Call (2023): A Serial Killer Preys on Gay Men in New York A+
Caronna gives these five men back their dignity, something they were stripped of when they became victims of a horrific crime.
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Grey Gardens (1975) Documentary Feature A+
After its release, the film’s high campness – a tragic story set in the faded milieu of New York high society – developed a significant gay following.
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Bono: Stories of Surrender is one of the Great Concert Movies (2025) A-
The man, on stage, in Naples, without the rest of his U2 bandmates, is in a great voice and equally fine storytelling form.
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Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis) (2023) A
Photographer/filmmaker Anton Corbijn has directed a hugely enjoyable documentary about Hipgnosis, the duo who revolutionized the album cover as an art form.
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BS High (2023). Greed and Exploitation in American High School Football B+
American high school/college football is one big exploitation racket that massively exploits the young men on whose backs the whole system rests.
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Donyale Luna: Supermodel (2023) B+
Known “the first Black supermodel”, she was the first African-American model to grace the cover of Vogue – shot by photographer David Bailey – in March 1966.
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What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael (2018) B-
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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The Dropout (2022) Limited Series Review A+
Amanda Seyfried is simply amazing. She gets Holmes’s uncomfortable stare and that otherworldly voice. But we also get Holmes as a real person.
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The Curse (2023) is Making Me Feel Very Uncomfortable! A+
Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie’s brilliant “The Curse” brings out the masochist in me. Thanks to the genius of Emma Stone, it’s essential viewing
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The Staircase (2022) Limited Series Review A+
The result: compulsive viewing for seven out of the eight episodes. Colin Firth is spellbinding. Toni Collette is equally superb.
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Mrs. America (2020) and the renaissance of Jeanne Dielman A+
Blanchett then slowly hangs up the phone and returns, defeated, to the kitchen. In un hommage à Akerman, the camera frames her in medium shot.
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Enlightened (2011) – TV Series Review A+
Laura Dern is a card-carrying liberal from Riverside. who wants to do good in this world but gets sidetracked by some deep personality flaws
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Beef (2023) The Netflix/A24 Production is Worth Savoring A
Created by Lee Sung Jin, the series boasts a wonderful script and spectacular turns by Steven Yeun and Ali Wong as the central characters.
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Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (2022) A
Evan Peters, Josh Braaten (young Jeffrey), Niecy Nash as nest-door-neighbor Glenda and a magnificent Richard Jenkins as Dahmer’s Father, all give stellar performances.
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Love and Death (2023) Elizabeth Olsen Asks “Is That All There Is?” A-
This is the superior version thanks to a spectacularly good Elizabeth Olsen as Montgomery, a housewife who has everything on the Baby Boom checklist.
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Fellow Travelers (2023) The Way We Were with a Queer Twist B+
“Fellow Travelers” is “The Way We Were,” with Jewish being replaced by Queer, Redford by Bomer and Barbra by Bailey. It’s compulsively watchable, just not a classic.
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Red, White & Royal Blue (2023). Even Texas Turns Over in Gay Romance! B
Nicholas Galitzine, as Prince Harry, gives a perfect performance. Utterly believable. He’s the ONLY reason to see this. But he is reason enough!
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La Nouvelle Vague (The French New Wave)
Included are my favorite thirteen films. Four are directed by Godard, three by Truffaut, two by Renais, and one each by Chabrol, Demy, Malle, and Varda.
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Classic Film Noir At Twentieth Century Fox
Fox Noir: Welcome to the world of the femme fatale and multiple flashbacks. Otto Preminger’s “Laura” with Clifton Webb is the crown jewel. And Gene Tierney.
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The Films of Joseph L. Mankiewicz
All twenty JLM films rated to coincide with a retrospective at the Criterion Collection. This includes his masterpiece “All About Eve”.
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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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