Four charming lead characters, amusingly evil bad guys, an interesting musical milieu and a calmly propulsive thriller plot make Tuner a fun watch. Dustin Hoffman is a kick, but the acting honors go to Leo Woodall, the latest Brit to take work away from an American. As in Disclosure Day, the ending is manufactured to make […]
Spielberg keeps us in the dark for as long as he can, perhaps to keep us from recognizing the absurdity of the entire premise of his movie. In fact, it is easier to accept the presence of aliens than the plot developments involving humans, let alone the various powers of his magic wand. Eve Hewson, […]
The trouble with filming a “true story” is the viewer is always thinking, could this really have happened?, and in this case the mind generally thought, I don’t think so. On the fictional level, though, we were given a riveting performance by Andrew Scott that, however unlikely, kept us firmly involved, and of course the […]
A thoroughly charming detective yarn spooled by sheep with personalities around humanoid caricatures. The many jokes made you feel good about getting them. The story was farfetched, but this is the first movie in several years that reduced me to tears at the end. A perfect way to spend a rainy Memorial Day Weekend Sunday […]
The Fear of 13 came with a middling review and poor word-of-mouth but wasn’t that bad. The burgeoning relationship between the condemned prisoner (Adrien Brody) and the visiting volunteer (Tessa Thompson) was credible and charming and scenes with the company were engaging and fun. The legal story, however, didn’t make sense, and the play’s wrap-up […]
We saw three plays in London last week; each had a highlight, each left me with quibbles. Grace Pervades featured acting by Ralph Fiennes that took my breath away; Inter Alia had a provocative argument (or more) with no easy answer; Les Liaisons Dangereuses was simply a spectacular production. Grace Pervades, David Hare’s 32nd play(!), provided a history of […]
This would have been better on the stage, where the “art” and the overacting wouldn’t have been in my face. As it was, the only enjoyable moments in what is essentially a two-hander came from watching my TV buddy James Corden ham it up. Like Marty Supreme, Ian McKellen is presumably meant to be obnoxious, […]
An effective, if unintentional, prequel to No Other Land, with the British, instead of the Jews, dispossessing Palestinians of their homeland. Well made, with appealing characters, and although one-sided in its history it didn’t come across as propagandistic. Unfortunately, there is no happy ending.
A new take on the Lone-Samurai (ronin) character familiar from Yojimbo and Sanjuro. The bustling 18th-century setting is fun, but Kurosawa and Mifune are missing, and missed. The role of go was a bit hard to swallow, but worse was a lack of subtlety, more expected in a film from 1970 than 2024.
Four characters and their permutational relationships is the essence, indeed almost the totality, of this film. After all the bluff and bluster of American cinema, it’s refreshing to return to a European film, this directed by the German auteur Christian Petzold, with no special effects, hardly any scenery, no dramatic soundtrack, just real people coping. […]
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