A sober and sobering account of a Syrian refugee family’s attempt to reach Sweden via Belarus and Poland, two countries that kicked them around, and worse, like political footballs. Agnieszka Holland crafts her film, shot in black-and-white after an opening view of, presumably, the green border, in chapters told from the perspectives of 1. the […]
A movie based on a book of photographs is a novel concept (if you pardon the anti-pun). Accordingly, it describes a place and time and a particular subset of people: bikeriders. Enough happens to keep the story moving, but without the dramatic tension of a plot-driven film. It’s watching people. And what people! Jodi Comer […]
Unfortunately, I’m a little Glen Powelled out after Anyone But You, hot on the heels of his flyboy roles in Top Gun: Maverick and Devotion. The various disguises he put on for his hit man job didn’t hide the pretty-boy charm that seemed his main contribution. Adria Arjona was new and good, and the supporting cast was […]
A love poem to Anne Hathaway, by Anne Hathaway, but what’s wrong with that? There’s a serious subtext of gender-based hypocrisy: society (i.e., social media) wouldn’t shame a 40-year-old man for an affair with a 24-year-old woman as they attack Hathaway’s character. But if the man has a 16-year-old daughter it gets a little trickier. […]
Huh? Expecting some sly sociopolitical comment, all I got was a cliched shoot-’em-up, battle scenes galore and nothing that made much sense. The super-achieving, premise-defying girl was great, but I had trouble telling one ape from another. The movie moved quickly, though.
Our first two shows on Broadway for the spring 2024 season shared sensational staging. For Enemy of the People, lighting by paraffin lamps, spare furniture and drab black costumes at Circle in the Square let us feel we were back in 19th century Norway. Postwar London for The Who’s Tommy wasn’t so much a location […]
An old-form Woody Allen short story, set in the streets and party rooms of Paris instead of New York: four characters, lots of talk about marriage and life, and just when you start to care about what happens to the people we get a goofy, comic ending. It’s fun to be back in France and […]
Never have I cared less who won a tennis match. Or, for that matter, spent two hours with three less attractive, less interesting people. Pretty much everything about the tennis rang false, except perhaps the arrested development of the players. If this is what’s getting good reviews these days, heaven help the viewers over a […]
As a fan of Japanese history and culture and having read positive reviews, I was looking forward to spending the next couple weeks watching the ten-part Shogun. Episode 1, however, left me annoyed, despite the wonderful costumes and pageantry. How could John Blackthorn emerge from the wasted schooner, where starvation had struck the crew, with a […]
Two good in-flight movies, following basic formulas: boy-meets-girl for Anyone But You and coming of age for Blinded By the Light. There are no surprises, but attractive leads make the predictable stories fun to watch. Blinded, of course, benefits from a soundtrack of great Bruce Springsteen songs. Anyone left me with the question of what makes a relationship? […]
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