Top Films by Year
Top Films of 2020
Top Films of 2017
Top Films of 2015
Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen & E Street Band – 7
I love Bruce, his band, his music, his performances, but there was nothing new in this documentary about his latest tour. I would have learned what his producer Jon Landau looked like if I hadn’t just had dinner with him last month in New York.
Oh, Mary!
The curtain opened and hilarity ensued. And ensued and ensued. Historical inaccuracy and period costumes added a patina to the comedy that made the farce engaging. The actors, especially Conrad Ricamora as “Mary’s Husband,” were so good and the action so bawdy that there wasn’t a moment or scene that wasn’t funny, but Cole Escola […]
Anora – 7.5
A directorial tour de force from Sean Baker, this tale of an erotic dancer caught up with a Russian oligarch’s son trafficked in extreme after extreme without losing touch with reality and very funny moments without descending to farce. It was, however, rather longer than necessary: the opening act of excess carried on well after […]
Conclave – 6.5
Visually sumptuous–those cardinals’ robes plus the Sistine Chapel!–but the story and characters never grabbed me. Ralph Fiennes was all anguish and emotion, making me long for Anthony Hopkins. John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci and comparable Italian and African(?) stars just made me wonder what they were doing at the Vatican. The plot, too, was cardboard thin, […]
Didi – 5.5
A well made movie about the awkward moments of ninth grade from the perspective of a first-generation Chinese immigrant. Unfortunately, the ninth grader at the center of everything, a surrogate for the director Sean Wang, is neither charming nor interesting, so the viewer emotional involvement is missing. And ninth grade, after all, holds only so […]