movie reviews
Movie Review: The Seed of the Sacred Fig
4.5 stars out of 5 Despite being made in Iran by Iranians, this is not Iran’s submission as Best International Feature for this year’s Academy Awards. That’s because writer/director Mohammad Rasoulof made the film — which is highly critical of Iran’s theocratic government — in secret, and then fled to Germany. Three of his lead […]
Movie Review: Wolf Man
4 stars out of 5 The day started out with me planning to see the movie September 5 in Montclair. But for the second week in a row I didn’t get an early-enough jump, so hunkered down in Vito’s Pizza of Bloomfield (last week it was the Tick Tock Diner in Clifton) to figure out […]
Movie Review: The Room Next Door
4 stars out of 5 Ticket clerk: “You’re in Theater 1.” Me: “Yes, but what’s in… the room next door?” After that bit of hilarity, I was ready to purchase my popcorn and settle in for Pedro Almodóvar’s first English-language feature with the boffo leads Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton. On the surface, this is […]
My Highly Subjective List of the Best Films of 2024
Movies, what’s new at the movies? It seems like my larger local theaters are devoting more screens to Indian and Asian films; that’s good, meet the needs of your demographic. Something called Terrifier 3 was also playing; I never saw a single commercial for it yet it was playing. Not playing: Juror #2 from 94-year-old […]
Movie Review: A Complete Unknown
4 stars out of 5 I saw this movie on Christmas Day but was then waylaid by the Yo La Tengo Hanukkah shows (where at least I did see two Dylan covers performed, “Something There Is About You” and “Baby, Let Me Follow You Down”) So my review has been delayed, sorry. If you wanted […]
Movie Review: Born Innocent — The Redd Kross Story
4 stars out of 5 This rock doc checks all the boxes: sex, drugs, sibling rivalry, breaking up, getting the band back together. There’s one tiny problem: It’s quite possible you have no idea who they are. Yes, lovers of glammy power pop absolutely worship Redd Kross, and record store ghouls have certainly come across […]
Movie Review: Y2K
3.5 stars out of 5 I began to realize a girlfriend wasn’t right for me when she couldn’t pay attention to Kyle Mooney’s previous screenwriting effort, the ingenious Brigsby Bear. Now it’s 7 years later, the SNL vet has added director to his credits, and I went to the theater alone to see Y2K. Mooney, […]
Movie Review: Gladiator II
4 stars out of 5 All I remembered about the first Gladiator, from 2000, is that I liked it a lot more than I thought I would, and also that it was one of the movies which made me realize that even though Russell Crowe seemed like a jerk in real life, he was a […]
Movie Review: Small Things Like These
4.5 stars out of 5 In my review of the excellent 2022 movie The Quiet Girl, I wrote that the “script is adapted from the novella Foster by Claire Keegan; will have to check out her work.” Since then I’ve indeed read the bulk of Keegan’s work, including her masterwork to date, Small Things Like These. My […]
Movie Review: Anora
4 stars out of 5Brooklyn exotic dancer falls for son of a Russian oligarch, but daddy doesn’t approve. In different hands, this random draw from Hollywood’s Big Hat o’ Plots could’ve been: a raunchy comedy with Adam Sandler [large budget] or Rob Schneider [small budget] as the dad; a Pretty Woman-esque rom-com [full disclosure: Have […]
Jack Silbert, curator