Articles written by the author
It's Bong Joon Ho's Dystopia. We Just Live in It.
(Critic’s Notebook)
When Filming in New York, the City is Always the Star
(Past Tense)
'Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood' Review: We Lost It at the Movies
(Critic's Pick)'Honeyland' Review: The Sting and the Sweetness
(Critic's Pick)'Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood' Review: We Lost It at the Movies
There is a lot of love in “Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood,” and quite a bit to enjoy. The screen is crowded with signs of Quentin Tarantino’s well-established ardor — for the movies and television shows of the decades after World War II; for the vernacular architecture, commercial signage and famous restaurants of Los Angeles; for the female foot and the male jawline; for vintage clothes and cars and cigarettes. But the mood in this, his ninth feature, is for the most part affectionate rat...'The Lion King' Review: The Art of Herding Digital Cats
Watching the newest version of “The Lion King” — a big-screen celebrity-voiced musical trying its best to look like a television nature documentary — I recalled a line from John Gregory Dunne’s 1969 book “The Studio” that may be my all-time favorite sentence in the annals of movie writing. “Six months were devoted to teaching Chee Chee the Chimpanzee how to cook bacon and eggs,” Dunne wrote, referring to a character in “Doctor Dolittle,” one of many real animals cast in that big-budget, famil...Review: Making a Spectacle of History (and Herself)
One of the most interesting documentaries of 2018 was Robert Greene’s “Bisbee 17,” about a historical re-enactment in an Arizona town that exposed how past conflicts continue to fester. “I Do Not Care if We Go Down in History as Barbarians,” the latest feature from Romanian director Radu Jude (“Scarred Hearts,” “Aferim!”), takes up a similar theme, showing that history is never neutral and that present-day culture wars often carry out the violence of the past by other means.'The Art of Self-Defense' review: Karate empowers a dweeb
Casey, a skinny, nervous nebbish — played, it may be redundant to add, by Jesse Eisenberg — lives alone with his dachshund in a nondescript apartment in an unidentified city. He works in the accounting department of a company that is as generic as everything else in “The Art of Self-Defense,” a wobbly sort-of satire written and directed by Riley Stearns.
'Spider-Man: Far From Home': passport, check; webs, check
I stan a pipsqueak.
'The Dead Don't Die' review: Zombies? Hipsters? A hamlet beckons
Those three play most of the police department of Centerville, a hamlet in some possible proximity to Pittsburgh or Cleveland — where the hipsters might come from — that advertises itself as “a nice place.”
'The Souvenir': A great movie about a bad boyfriend
(Critic’s Pick): “The Souvenir” is one of my favorite movies of the year so far, but I almost want to keep it a secret. Partly because it’s the kind of film — we all have a collection of these, and of similar books and records, too — that feels like a private discovery, an experience you want to protect rather than talk about.
'The Third Wife' review: Cruelty and sensuality in 19th-century Vietnam
At 14, May (Nguyen Phuong Tra My) travels up river to marry a man she has never met and start a new life on his family’s silk plantation. The household, which includes servants, her husband’s two other wives and their children, is a place where intimacy and cruelty can be hard to tell apart. It’s the center of a world rendered with pathos and somewhat prurient fascination in “The Third Wife,” Ash Mayfair’s finespun debut feature.
Doris Day: A hip sex goddess disguised as the girl next door
(An Appraisal): The Hollywood Reporter obituary for Doris Day describes her in the headline as “Hollywood’s Favorite Girl Next Door,” which is reasonable enough, if not terribly imaginative.
'Pasolini' review: One rebellious filmmaker's tribute to another
(Critic’s Pick): In the autumn of 1975, at the Rome apartment he shares with his mother and a cousin, Pier Paolo Pasolini is giving what will turn out to be his last interview. A week after his body is found on a beach outside the city, the conversation will be published in La Stampa under the headline “We Are All in Danger.” Parts of it are reproduced verbatim (in English), in Abel Ferrara’s new film.
Familiar high jinks on the French Riviera
Comedy is in a weird place these days. Stand-up performers and late-night television hosts lean into the politics of the moment, while most movies with an urge to be funny tread cautiously, afraid of giving offense to any segment of the audience. “The Hustle” does some of that — it pushes no buttons and tests no boundaries — but in the service of a higher cause. Or maybe a lower one. Silliness is the watchword. Always silliness.
'The Intruder' review: Dennis Quaid as a homeowner's nightmare
“The Intruder,” a real-estate-based thriller set in California’s Napa Valley, is more silly than scary. This doesn’t seem to be entirely intentional, and it isn’t altogether unwelcome. The idea of Dennis Quaid popping up in your kitchen in the middle of the night might not exactly be the stuff of nightmares. Quaid, playing a deranged ex-homeowner named Charlie Peck, seems to know this. And the director, Deon Taylor, does too.
'Non-Fiction' review: Sex comedy disguised as tech treatise, or vice versa?
During my first viewing of Olivier Assayas’ “Non-Fiction” — sometime last year, it must have been — I was a little puzzled about exactly when the story was supposed to be taking place. Was it right now, or now-ish or at some point in the recent past?
John Singleton Did Justice to a Poetic Vision of African-American Life
(An Appraisal)'Be Natural' Review: Rescuing Alice Guy Blaché, a Film Pioneer, From Oblivion
(Critic’s Pick)'Avengers: Endgame' review: The real heroes were the friends we made along the way
“No amount of money ever bought a second of time,” one character says to another — I’m afraid I can’t be any more specific than that — somewhere around the middle of “Avengers: Endgame.” So true, so true, and also in context so completely not true. The intersecting axes of time and money are what this franchise is all about, and while I’m not an expert in studio math, I’d guess that a second of the movie, based on what Disney and Marvel Studios paid to make it, would buy a decent used car.
