The Business of Film and Entertainment
Written by: Victoria Alexander
Brilliant and astonishing. See Joker and there is no need to see any other movie in 2019. Joker is a brave and daring film. Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck/Joker creates a fully realized unique character. The screenplay by director Todd … Continue reading
Written by: Victoria Alexander
Boo-Hoo. A little girl was deprived of a childhood to become a world famous actress and singer. Not everyone has an idyllic childhood. Most of us would trade our lousy childhoods with the one manufactured for Judy Garland. Sure, it’s … Continue reading
Written by: Victoria Alexander
Really? Not one moment of insight into what happened on Cielo Drive? Tarantino drank the Hollywood Kool-Aid. DiCaprio and Pitt get to hang out and do a lot of driving around. Does writer-director Quentin Tarantino know that the Tate-La Bianca … Continue reading
Written by: Christopher Llewellyn Reed, Associate Editor
Pain and Glory (“Dolor y gloria”) (Pedro Almodóvar, 2019) 2½ out of 4 stars. Pedro Almodóvar’s latest film offers neither excessive pain nor great glory, so megalomaniacal masochists, beware. It is a very personal film, however, so there are plenty … Continue reading
Written by: Christopher Llewellyn Reed, Associate Editor
Monos (Alejandro Landes, 2019) 2½ out of 4 stars. Blindfolded children stand in a circle of large stones, framed by towering mountains, clouds swirling around. Is this a sinister ritual? No, it’s but a game; we soon see them kicking … Continue reading
Written by: Christopher Llewellyn Reed, Associate Editor
Tigers Are Not Afraid (“Vuelven”) (Issa López, 2017) 3½ out of 4 stars. A horror film set amidst the real-life tragedies of Mexico’s horrific drug wars, Issa López’s Tigers Are Not Afraid (“Vuelven,” or “They Come Back” in the original … 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
Gemini Man (Ang Lee, 2019) 1½ out of 4 stars. Cautious optimism is the phrase I would use to describe the feeling that rumbles in my gut whenever a new film from either Ang Lee or Will Smith is released. Like … Continue reading
Lucy in the Sky (Noah Hawley, 2019) ½ out of 4 stars. Lucy is inspired, Lucy is inspiring. She’s also driven, stunned, passionate, angry, giddy, confused, focused, manic, crazy, smart, successful, failing, at-a-loss spiraling-out-of-control allovertheplace goingamileaminuteand quicklylosingthethreadof thingsandunabletodifferentiate betweenwhatisrealandwhatisnot. She’s … Continue reading
The Addams Family (Greg Tiernan/Conrad Vernon, 2019) 3 out of 4 stars. Growing up, my father always used to talk about these people called “The Addams Family.” He would reference a character called “Cousin It” and “Morticia.” Of course, I … Continue reading
Joker (Todd Phillips, 2019) 1 out of 4 stars. A relentlessly bleak tale of despair and anger, director Todd Phillips’s Joker features a blistering collection of mannerisms masquerading as emotional truths in lead actor Joaquin Phoenix’s performance, and not much else. … Continue reading
Abominable (Jill Culton, 2019) 2½ out of 4 stars. Dreamwork’s Abominable is just the latest in a string of films to focus on Asian-centered storylines and characters, as well as the latest in a string of films to focus on Yeti-adjacent … Continue reading
#FemalePleasure (Barbara Miller, 2019) 3½ out of 4 stars. From director Barbara Miller (Forbidden Voices) comes a documentary profile of five women in five different countries who each, in her own way, confronts the patriarchal demands, of her respective culture, … Continue reading
Dolemite Is My Name (Craig Brewer, 2019) 3 out of 4 stars. Though Eddie Murphy has never stopped working since his explosion onto the media scene in the early 1980s, thanks to first Saturday Night Live and then hits like … Continue reading
Low Tide (Kevin McMullin, 2019) 3 out of 4 stars. A24 is perhaps best known for distributing atmospheric horror releases such as The Witch (Robert Eggers, 2015), Hereditary (Ari Aster, 2018), and Midsommar (Aster, 2019), Oscar-nominees and winners such as … Continue reading
The Garden Left Behind (Flavio Alves, 2019) 3 out of 4 stars. Winner of the Audience Award in the “Visions” category at the 2019 SXSW Film Festival, The Garden Left Behind, from director Flavio Alves (making his feature debut), tells … Continue reading
