Top Films by Year
Top Films of 2020
Top Films of 2017
Top Films of 2015
Eddington – 5
The first film I’ve seen to baldly tackle the political dysfunction/divide/disaster that is the American fringe today, hitting bang-bang-bang on Covid masks, Black Lives Matter, gun culture, cults, indigenous rights, political distortion–what have I left out? Perhaps in trying to do too much, the plot is full of unresolved red herrings and relies on mysterious […]
Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight – 7.5
A thoroughly charming cinematic representation of Alexandra Fuller’s riveting 2001 memoir about the 1980 transfer of white to Black power as Rhodesia was reborn as Zimbabwe. The story is told through the eyes and actions of seven-year-old actress Lexi Venter in an astonishing performance, while her innocence is matched by her psychologically fierce and tormented […]
Familiar Touch – 7
Less a story than a scrapbook account of moving one’s mother to a memory-care facility. Kathleen Chalfant is superb as the regal 80-year-old who has retained her culinary skills but has no inkling of who the people around her are. Sympathetic, not maudlin, the picture it presents of a stage in life we have experienced […]
Jane Austen Wrecked My Life – 6
After time spent watching streamers it felt good to sit in a theater and see characters on a big screen with lush scenery behind them. Beyond that, this film was largely forgettable, although it left me wondering what its title meant. Camille Rutherford was fine as the Austen-besotted would-be writer, but the main attraction, for […]
NY Theater Spring ’25
Dead Outlaw (9) An outrageous true story of a mummy brought to life by a superb ensemble cast and a catchy country rock score played live onstage. The stagecraft was everything, as each excellent actor rotated through a variety of roles at a breakneck pace that drew you in and, amazingly, made you care. Andrew […]