The immediate reaction to this excellent movie – which on its surface is about an arrogant young American table-tennis player’s attempts to attend two world championships, one in London and the other in Tokyo, in the early 1950s – seems to be that no one wants to watch a movie …
Amir El-Masry is the lucky owner of one of the great faces in modern cinema, and he got to show it off not once but twice at this year’s London Film Festival. Unfortunately in neither case was it shown off to his best advantage. The less said about 100 Nights …
As I left the London Film Festival screening of Christy, I heard a stunned young woman telling her friend that this is a horror movie. And it is, of the most ordinary kind. It is also a biopic of sporting triumph about the importance of getting up every single time …
The Cut, starring Orlando Bloom, is an intense film about all the psychological drama that goes on behind the scenes of a boxer determined to make weight and redeem himself. It’s gritty and massively thrilling and one of the most interesting films of the past year. That’s why I was …
This movie, for which the English title should be My Tennis Coach and it’s weird that it isn’t, is an affable Italian road movie about the coming of age of a wannabe tennis player. The entire thing is built around the nuclear-level charm of Pierfrancesco Favino (who previously worked with …
The Swiss director Fabrice Aragno is known for his collaborations with the cinematic genius Jean-Luc Godard. He worked as a cinematographer in Godard’s films ” Film Socialisme, Goodbye to Language, and Trailer of a Film That Will Never Exist: Phony Wars. He produced Godard’s last Cannes competition entry, The Book …
There are films that, regardless of their cinematic quality, earn a very special place in the hearts of audiences. Happy Gilmore (1996), starring Adam Sandler and co-written with Tim Herlihy, is one such case. Much like many of Sandler’s comedies from the ’90s and early 2000s, it didn’t stand out …
At the outset, F1 was already a hard film to review. Similar to Ezra Miller, the longtime actor Brad Pitt’s personal life has become a conflicting topic, especially since his family life hit the news. At the same time, F1 director Joseph Kosinski’s Top Gun: Maverick is one of the …
When asked to define the word eephus, many may just give up. The word sounds almost made-up if you do not come from the world of baseball. If you are a fan of the great American pastime, however, an eephus is a known quantity. It is the name for a …
Disney’s newest sports-inspiration film, Young Woman and the Sea, may not be the most artistic film ever made, but it knows what it’s supposed to be doing and does it well. Directed by Joachim Rønning, the biopic follows Trudy Ederle (Daisy Ridley), a New Yorker born in 1905, as she …
A little over one year ago, Ted Lasso aired its finale. Despite being off the air for an entire year, it has never dipped out of the top five of Apple TV+’s most-watched shows. While plenty of shows gain a new life when they are released in a new format (think Suits …
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: …
The Gutter, a bowling comedy from Yassir Lester (Marvel’s Armor Wars) and Isaiah Lester recently had its world premiere at SXSW in Austin. The film stars Shameik Moore, Susan Sarandon, D’Arcy Carden, Jay Ellis, Jackée Harry, and Paul Reiser, just to name a few. Moore plays Walt, a bartender and shoe de-roacher (exactly what you think) at the AlleyCatz bowling alley. Money problems …
The Iron Claw, written and directed by Sean Durkin, is the newest release from A24. It covers the Von Erich family’s rise to wrestling fame and all the subsequent heartbreak and suffering that plagued them. When it comes to curses, you can usually define them as bad luck or evil that …
The Iron Claw is different from the type of film I would typically seek out on my own. I have never been a huge wrestling fan; I have nothing against people who love it, but it isn’t for me. But A24’s involvement is a surefire way to pique my curiosity. At …