Not much is known about Josef Mysliveček – the 18th-century composer at the center of writer and director Petr Václav’s lavish historical biopic The Bohemian – in the English-speaking musical world. It is known he was on good terms with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as the two composers vied for recognition …
With On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, director and writer Rungano Nyoni returns to Cannes with an exciting sophomore feature after her successful feature film debut with I Am Not a Witch. Nyoni’s latest film competed in the Un Certain Regard section of the festival, where the Zambia-born director won the …
Miguel Gomes won the Best Director prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for Grand Tour, which he co-wrote with Telmo Churro, Maureen Fazendeiro, and Mariana Ricardo, because it is an impossible film. It’s an epic pan-Asian journey best described as a mash-up of Wisconsin Death Trip and Apocalypse Now, …
In Hit Man, Richard Linklater’s latest film, the beloved director teams up with his star Glen Powell to write a script loosely based on a stranger-than-fiction news feature by legendary Texas Monthly reporter Skip Hollandsworth. It should be stressed that the real story, while remarkably gripping, does not go quite …
In an unprecedented move, the Cannes Film Festival jury awarded the Best Actress prize this year to the four actresses of Emilia Pérez – Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez, Karla Sofía Gascón and Adriana Paz. This is almost as startling as French writer-director Jacques Audiard making a primarily Spanish-language musical about …
Other reviews compare Anora to Pretty Woman, but this is a bad mistake. The world has moved on considerably since 1990, and these days, capitalism is now second to oligarchy. Oligarchs are people for whom life is to be lived without consequences because their incredible wealth means anything, or anyone, can be bought. …
Challengers was one of the most anticipated films of 2023, but it was postponed to the following year due to the SAG-AFTRA strike. However, the enormous anticipation for Luca Guadagnino’s new movie (Call Me by Your Name, Suspiria, Bones and All) never faded, especially considering it stars one of Hollywood’s biggest young celebrities of today, Zendaya (Dune: …
It is likely that 99% of the audience for Manhunt will push play on the first episode knowing roughly how the events play out. Monica Beletsky’s seven-part adaptation uses James L. Swanson’s book of the same name as a rough starting point to chronicle the 12-day search for John Wilkes Booth and his co-conspirators after the …
Who doesn’t love a good revenge movie? Throughout the years, we’ve seen John Wick take out people for killing his dog, Robert McCall takes out people for an old friend, and Cassandra Thomas hunts down the men who sexually assaulted her best friend. The latest comes in the form of …
Dev Patel exploded into global consciousness in Slumdog Millionaire, the 2008 British smash hit that opened the Western world’s eyes to the cinematic possibilities within India. Since then, Mr. Patel’s roles have largely been in Western films with an Indian setting – the two Marigold Hotel movies, the biopic Lion, and a few thrillers. But even in …
In 2023, we saw a movie based on the Holocaust taking the world by storm. Yes, we are talking about Jonathan Glazer’s haunting masterpiece, The Zone of Interest. It gave a very different perspective about an event that changed the world. Now, months later, we have another project revolving around the Holocaust. James Hawes’ One …
In 2020, Ray Yeung’s film Suk Suk (Twilight’s Kiss) was nominated at the Hong Kong Film Awards, with lead actor Tai-Bo taking home Best Actor. However, due to the pandemic, the film never found international audiences. Now, four years later, Yeung hopes to bring his next feature, All Shall Be Well, to more audiences this time around. The film …
Specific true-life stories demand the big-screen cinematic treatment. In some cases, those true stories can go on to earn Academy awards (Braveheart, Schindlers List). In other cases, some films can dishonor those stories’ legacies. Adapting those stories can be some of the most challenging films to make. The story of the …
Christopher Nolan’s biographical epic Oppenheimer dominated the 96th Academy Awards, securing victory in seven categories. The film claimed the coveted title of Best Picture, while Christopher Nolan earned the Best Director award. Cillian Murphy took home the Best Actor, and Robert Downey Jr. received the accolade for Best Supporting Actor. Additionally, Oppenheimer triumphed in technical categories, winning trophies for Cinematography, Film …
Isaac Asimov was a Russian science fiction writer who died in the early 1990s. He wrote extensively about the future and discussed AI and robots in many of his stories. Much of his work was written before our modern world of robot vacuum cleaners and self-driving cars, but much of Asimov’s …
Content warning: How to Have Sex and this review touches on the subjects of sexual assault. Please approach both with caution if this topic is triggering for you. I heard very little about Molly Manning Walker’s debut film, How to Have Sex, so I went into it without many preconceptions. What I got …
Most of us can remember what it was like to be in grade school. There was always some Tommy likes Sally type of drama between pubescent boys and girls, but rarely were there incidents of any note that got the whole school on high alert. Most of those types of …
Mia McKenna-Bruce Gives a star-making performance in this quietly devastating drama. The first thirty minutes or so of Molly Manning Walker’s feature directorial debut, How to Have Sex, is highly disorienting. Walker zips through one scene after the next at a breakneck pace as she posits the story as a coming-of-age tale where a group …
Shoplifters is a 2018 Japanese language film directed, written, and edited by the amazing Hirokazu Kore-eda. The movie tells the story of a found family that relies on shoplifting to survive a life of poverty. One thing I love the most about Shoplifters is how it focuses on found families. This family is built …
When it comes to paintings and art, I’m not a huge connoisseur. I can walk through an art gallery and appreciate most pieces from a technical level, but as far as anything I would purchase and own for my own enjoyment, I’m pretty indifferent to most things. A new animated …