Category: Film Reviews

“Women Talking,” March 10, 2023 (2022), Amazon Prime. Writer/director Sarah Polley received the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for this one, and rightly so. It’s 2010 and the women in a relatively isolated rural religious community have learned a terrible thing about their lives. They have been systematically drugged, raped, impregnated, infected, lied to, and…

“The Fabelmans,” March 5, 2023 (2022),  DVD. Steven Spielberg directed and co-wrote – with Tony Kushner – this thoughtful, episodic semi-autobiographical look at his life-long love of cinema and his experience of familial chaos.  It’s an adult look at a child’s understanding of life, love, and the cultural changes of white, middle-class, and especially, Jewish-Americans. …

“Tár,”  February 27, 2023, DVD (2022).  Cate Blanchett stars as Berlin Philharmonic conductor Lydia Tár in this painful and disturbing, award winning/nominated study by writer/director Todd Field.  With its stellar acting, astounding score and gut-wrenching story line, it’s an excruciating look at the abuse of power by a brilliant woman who preys upon her younger…

“On the Rocks,” February 10, 2023 (2020), DVD.   Let’s start with the conclusion.  I was, sadly, disappointed in this flat, poorly paced, mostly unfunny comedy about rich, young, unbelievably successful, hardworking and beautiful African-Americans in NYC.  (And yes, I care just as little about their Euro-American counterparts.)  Make no mistake about it, the film’s primary…

  “The Banshees of Inisherin,” January 20, 2023 (2022), HBO with added feature, 9 Oscar nominations.  Ireland 1922-1923 is locked in a civil war between Republican (IRA) factions who had, together, fought the British.  Atrocities, house burnings, major battles, and murders by both sides plagued the land.  Thousands of combatants and civilians died in the…

“Argentina, 1985,” January 30, 2023 (2022), Amazon Prime, Dubbed.  The dubbing’s good, but I wish we could have seen it subtitled, especially para mi esposa bilingue. We enjoyed director and co-writer Santiago Mitre’s ‘based-on-a-true-story’ of people making major changes in their society.  Argentina’s military dictatorship (1975-83) was gone, but none of the criminals who led…

“Matilda the Musical,” January 25, 2023 (2022), Netflix.  We enjoyed this bit of comic fantasy although I’ve never been fond of psychic skills and telekinesis as plot devices. This is a very witty musical version of the Roald Dahl children’s novel.  I almost called it a ‘classic’ tale of good triumphing over evil, but really,…

“All Quiet on the Western Front,” January 18, 2023 (2022), German with English Subtitles, Netflix, nominated for Best Picture and Best International Picture. “My friend, you would not tell with such zest/To children ardent for some desperate glory/The old Lie/ Dulce et decorum est/Pro patria mori” wrote Wilfred Owen, shortly before his own death on the…

“Top Gun: Maverick,” January 17, 2023 (2022), DVD.  No need to yell at me for seeing or not liking this sequel to “Top Gun” of 36 years ago. Wonderful photography in this redux of the propaganda machine about people flying big, fast, amazingly expensive, sleek, sexy and destructive machines. Tom Cruise is back as Capt….

“Hit the Road,” (Iran, subtitled), January 16, 2023 (2021), DVD. This road movie from Panah Panahi, son of the brilliant Iranian filmmaker, Jafar Panahi, is much more than it seems. The cinematography by Amin Jafari is superb. The writing and acting are brilliant. We find them on the road, having already begun their journey. A…

“Bullet Train,” January 15, 2023 (2022), DVD.  We both enjoyed this very funny battle of assassins during a trip on one of Japan’s amazing bullet trains.  To my great pleasure and surprise, the dialogue was crisp and very funny, the acting was excellent, the fight scenes (choreographed by director/stunt/fight coordinator David Leitch).  It was lots…

“Nope,” January 14,2023 (2022), DVD.  I’m a big fan of Jordan Peele’s humor and was blown away by his first major screen writing/directing debut, “Get Out!”.  I loved it, which really surprised me because I’m not fond of horror genre stuff.   I’m still working on “Us” but decided to tackle “Nope,” his third film, first. …

“Glass Onion,” January 13, 2023 (2022), Netflix.  I was not a fan of “Knives Out,” but I was willing to see another ‘episode’ in this franchise from Rian Johnson.   I was, again, underwhelmed after an initially funny setup to the story.  Cameo’s by Hugh Grant, Ethan Hawke, Jackie Hoffman, Stephen Sondheim, Natasha Lyonne, and Kareem…

“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio,” January 12, 2023 (2022), Netflix.  It’s certainly not Walt Disney’s “Pinocchio,” although the cricket, Gepetto, and the little-carved wooden boy who come alive through magical intervention are all there.  A carnival-man replaces the con-artist of the earlier film  It won this year’s Golden Globe for best animated feature.  This stop-motion animation…

“Everything, Everywhere, All at Once,” January 11, 2023 (2022), DVD. Hang on to your hats for this wonderful, chaotic, breathtaking sci-fi comedy cum family melodrama that merges both genres and dimensions at the same time from writers/directors Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinter (The Daniels). It’s a serious hoot and a challenge to follow because of…

“Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence,” December 30, 2022 (1983), DVD -Criterion.  Based on novel The Seed and the Sower, by Laurens Van Der Post.  Bronwen wanted to revisit this Nagisa Oshima (“The Realm of the Senses”) story of a Japanese POW camp in Java during WWII starring Tom Conti, David Bowie, Riuchi Sakamoto, and Takashi Kitano. …

“Sybil,” December 26, 2022 (1976), TV miniseries, DVD.  An Emmy-winning multi-episode drama and for best actress, this is likely the last of our Newman/Woodward orgy for a while.  Joanne Woodward was nominated for Best Actress, but Sally Fields rightly won in what was her first big dramatic role.  Of course, Woodward won the Oscar for…

“Rachel, Rachel,” December 17, 2022 (1968), DVD.  Paul Newman directed, and Joanne Woodward starred as Rachel Cameron, a 35-year old unmarried elementary school teacher living with her widowed mother in an apartment above the funeral parlor her father ran.  Past and present merge well as we see the creation of this repressed, loveless life through…

“Mr. & Mrs. Bridge,” December 11, 2022 (1990), DVD.  Our trip through Newman/Woodward-land continues.  Woodward pushed for this production and Merchant/Ivory who produced/directed this period piece about a rigid, self-righteous upper-middle class lawyer, Kansas City lawyer, Walter Bridge (Paul Newman), his very housewifeish wife, India (Joanne Woodward), and their difficulties navigating the times they live…

“Hiroshima, Mon Amour,” French, November 26, 2022 (1959), DVD.  Another great film I’ve always meant to see. Yeah, I know. I should have seen it years ago.  Anyway, Bronwen came back from Japan two weeks ago and decided she wanted to watch this again.   She saw it back in 1975 or ’76 at the New…

“It Happened One Night,” November 25, 2022 (1934), DVD.  Renowned for it’s 5 top Oscars, this Frank Capra rom-com road movie was loosely based on a short story in Cosmopolitan about reporter Peter Warne (Clark Gable) and a runaway spoiled heiress Ellen “Ellie” Andrews’(Claudette Colbert) adventures and misadventures as they bus/hitchhike/and purloin a car to…

“Vengeance,” November 7, 2022, (DVD).  B.J. Novak wrote, directs, and stars in this dark comic/drama of a who done it?  Novak leads as Ben Monalowitz, a New Yorker writer in the New York bubble of 30-somethings searching for pickups and a career boost that he hopes can come via podcasting.  He sees his opportunity on…

Newman, Woodward, Noir and More.  (October-November, 2022). Newman, Woodward, noir and more. We’ve been watching older films of late. This has been induced by the 6-part Ethan Hawke documentary “The Last Movie Stars” (HBO) about Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. Very informative and interesting. I learned much from it and really appreciated that look at…

“Defiance,” November 3, 2022 (2008), DVD.  Based on a true story, Edward Zwick’s direction and screenplay stays close to Nachama Tec’s book of the same name.  Filmed in Lithuania.  Tuvia, Zus, and Asael Bielski (Daniel Craig, Live Schrieber, and Jaime Bell) are Belarussian Jewish brothers who separately escape the butchery of the SS in 1941….

“The Outfit,” September 30, 2022, Amazon Prime.  Leonard (Mark Rylance) is a cutter not a tailor.  A Saville Row trained cutter.  He produces the finest men’s suits.  And, in his little Chicago shop, he makes them for all sorts of people.  Chicago is dark and sinister as it often is; and the filming of the…