20s movies
Movie Review: Happening
4.5 stars out of 5Hmm, how to get Kavanaugh, Coney Barrett, Thomas, Gorsuch, and Alito to see this movie? Because they really need to. And yet, are any of them bright enough to read subtitles? Happening is a French film which takes place in 1963, though it may as well be Red State America, fall […]
Movie Review: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
4 stars out of 5Can we please just can it with the multiverse for a hot minute? Couple of pals said, “you gotta see Everything Everything All at Once,” yet three words into the summary I read, it said multiverse, and I was all, thank you but no; myself and my parallel selves are outta […]
Movie Review: The Outfit
2.5 stars out of 5I texted my friend Lex Burling right after seeing the trailer for this movie a while back. I needed to tell her that, on the front window of a tailor shop in the film, it prominently says “L. BURLING.” I also said in that text exchange that initially The Outfit looked […]
Movie Review: The Batman
4 stars out of 5It had been five and and a half weeks and I still hadn’t seen The Batman. Seven-dollar Tuesday came and went. Just wait till Monday and fire it up on HBOMax? No, I’d seen every Batman flick since 1989 in the theater and by god, I wasn’t stopping now! Which is […]
Movie Review: 2022 Oscar Nominated Animated Short Films
Robin Robin (United Kingdom)3 stars out of 5This is the mainstream nominee, from Aardman Studios (Wallace and Gromit, Chicken Run) with voices by Gillian Anderson and Richard E. Grant. And though it’s cute — a bird growing up in a mouse family! Oh and it’s Christmastime! — this is real kid-oriented and nothing particularly special. […]
Movie Review: 2022 Oscar Nominated Documentary Short Films
Audible (USA)4.5 stars out of 5 No, this isn’t a documentary about the audio book company. If you’re a fan of Friday Night Lights, fire up your Netflix and watch this 38-minute doc. (The similarities are no coincidence: Lights’ Peter Berg is a producer here.) Audible focuses on the high school football team at the […]
Movie Review: 2022 Oscar Nominated Live-Action Short Films
On My Mind (Denmark) 3.5 stars out of 5 Man walks into a bar. But it’s not the set-up for a joke, it’s an Oscar-nominated short. He downs a stiff drink and, on his way out, notices the karaoke stage. Can he please sing a song? Gruff owner is dismissive — it’s morning, he’s working […]
Movie Review: The Worst Person in the World
4 stars out of 5As I already boldly announced that Drive My Car was the best film of 2021, I guess I have to also vote for it as the best International Feature at the Oscars. But Norway’s entry, The Worst Person in the World, is really good too. I was quickly charmed by Renate […]
Movie Review: Jackass Forever
3.5 stars out of 5 It’s not that I was opposed to Jackass; I just never tuned in. I certainly noticed the show’s influence on my young friend [TRIGGER WARNING: obscure name-dropping], then-aspiring filmmaker Van Neistat. I dug the Minutemen song they used as theme music. Names seeped into my awareness: Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Wee […]
Movie Review: Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
3.5 stars out of 5 First things first: Vanna White does not appear in this film. Having just named Drive My Car my favorite movie of 2021, I was excited to see another offering from director Ryûke Hamaguchi. And this time I’d be judging him fully on his own merits, as there wasn’t a Haruki […]
Jack Silbert, curator