The Business of Film and Entertainment
Written by: Victoria Alexander
A stunning, unexpected nightmare for a group of grad students without a clue. Doesn’t leave much room for sympathy for the victims. It’s a clever film worth seeing twice. Director-screenwriter Ari Aster’s HEREDITARY (2018) was certified a hit with critics … Continue reading
Written by: Victoria Alexander
There was no script, the cast was comatose and sitting through it was agony. Focus Features spent all the money on theater standees. With the cast and the hallowed Jim Jarmusch writing and directing (STRANGER THAN PARADISE, which everyone refers … Continue reading
Written by: Victoria Alexander
The homoerotic farewell to what the X-MEN has really been about – the unresolved passion between Xavier and Magneto. The competition between the Marvel and DC superheroes has stalled at Everest’s Base Camp 4. Who will get to the top … Continue reading
Written by: Christopher Llewellyn Reed
Summer Night (Joseph Cross, 2019) 2½ out of 4 stars. An enjoyable enough, if rambling and slight, study of twentysomething ennui, director Joseph Cross’ Summer Night follows a group of thirteen friends over the course of one night (as per the movie’s … Continue reading
Written by: Matt Patti
Deadsight (Jesse Thomas Cook, 2018) 2 out of 4 stars. The horror subgenre of zombie films all started in 1968 with the infamous blunder made by George Romero’s distributor for Night of the Living Dead. This gaffe involved forgetting to … Continue reading
Written by: Christopher Llewellyn Reed
Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am (Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, 2019) 2½ out of 4 stars. The palpable passion of poet Sonia Sanchez and media guru Oprah Winfrey notwithstanding, director Timothy Greenfield-Sanders’ documentary homage to the great writer Toni Morrison is a … Continue reading
Written by: Rob Goald, Senior Editor
The Cheerful Subversive’s Guide to INDEPENDENT FILMMAKING By Dan Mirvish Routledge/Taylor & Francis A Focal Press Book New York 2017 Learning how to produce ultra-low-budget feature films is a demanding and complicated task. Even earning a bachelor’s degree in Film, … Continue reading
Written by: Christopher Llewellyn Reed
In Lower Manhattan, bordered on the west by the Hudson River, the east by Broadway, the north by Canal Street, and on the south by the World Trade Center site, lies the neighborhood known as Tribeca (formerly spelled “TriBeCa,” each … Continue reading
Written by: Stan Popovich
Many celebrities deal with the pressures of Hollywood on a regular basis. Here are some suggestions on how to manage the stresses and anxieties of dealing with peer pressure when working in Hollywood. 1. Know Where You Stand. Ask yourself … Continue reading
The Lion King (Jon Favreau, 2019) 2 out of 4 stars. A marvelous demonstration of the wonders of 21st-century computer-generated imagery (or CGI), Disney’s latest poaching from its own story vault is beautiful to behold, the wonders of modern animation … Continue reading
Maiden (Alex Holmes) 3 out of 4 stars. We’re living in an era of film that ushers in both the documentary as a genre and the experiences of women as narrative focal points. Alex Holmes’ Maiden sets out for both … Continue reading
Stuber (Michael Dowse) 1 out of 4 stars. It turns out that some movies are only as good as their name. Take a look at this one, and you’ll know everything you need to know about the movie behind it. … Continue reading
Spider-Man: Far from Home (Jon Watts, 2019) 3 out of 4 stars. As I feel compelled to write whenever I review a new Marvel film, I am no diehard aficionado of the superhero genre. I dabbled in some reading of … Continue reading
Yesterday (Danny Boyle, 2019) 2 out of 4 stars. Danny Boyle, a filmmaker with one of the most eclectic filmographies imaginable, jumps headfirst into the traditional romantic comedy and uses a script by Love Actually’s Richard Curtis to inject a dose … Continue reading
The Farewell (Lulu Wang, 2019) 3 out of 4 stars. A film that refuses to follow any genre conventions of drama or comedy, The Farewell tells the often charming, frequently heartbreaking tale of a family struggling with their aging matriarch’s terminal-cancer diagnosis. … Continue reading
Trespassers (Orson Oblowitz, 2019) 3 out of 4 stars. Trespassers begins with a literal bang, opening with a brutally quick double execution of a couple at the hands of a masked man, showing viewers what they’re in for, right off … Continue reading
Woodstock: Three Days That Defined a Generation (Barak Goodman/Jamila Ephron, 2019) 4 out of 4 stars. In the early summer of 1969, a college buddy of mine stopped by and asked me if I was interested in joining him in August … Continue reading
Framing John DeLorean (Don Argott/Sheena M. Joyce, 2019) 3½ out of 4 stars. A fascinating amalgam of archival footage, modern-day talking-head interviews and dramatized reenactments, Framing John DeLorean chronicles the rise and fall of the once-renowned titular automobile executive who leant … Continue reading
