Film Reviews
No Time to Die Offers a Thrilling Swan Song to Daniel Craig’s 007: Review
The Pitch: After James Bond (Daniel Craig) left MI6 after the events of Spectre, he attempts to leave his past — and that of his new paramour, Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux) — behind him. But the ghosts of SPECTRE and his foster brother-turned- supervillain, Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Christoph Waltz), remain, particularly once a gene-coded supervirus falls into the hands of a secretive villain (Rami Malek) who has his own ax to grind against the criminal organization. Reluctantly, Bond re-enters the world of spycraft and intrigue, now competing with MI6 and the new 007 (Lashana Lynch) to track down the virus and stave off global genocide — and close a few holes in his personal story along the way as well. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service: We’ve long known that No Time to Die would...
NYFF Review: Joel Coen Goes Solo in Style with The Tragedy of Macbeth
This review is part of our coverage of the 2021 New York Film Festival. The Pitch: The Coen Brothers plus Shakespeare — whaddaya need, a roadmap? Actually, you might; or at least a program note to explain why The Tragedy of Macbeth has only one Coen on hand. It’s not a retro affectation that Joel Coen is taking sole director credit, as he used to on the joint Coen projects (until 2004’s The Ladykillers, Joel took “director” and Ethan handled “producer,” even though they were always really doing both). Ethan is taking a break from making movies, while Joel has mounted a black-and-white version of Shakespeare’s famous (and fleetest?) tragedy, with Denzel Washington as Lord Macbeth, who becomes convinced he must take bloody action to fulfill his destiny and become king of Scotland, and France...
Oasis Knebworth 1996 Is a Warm, Luxurious Bath of ’90s British Nostalgia: Review
The Pitch: In 1996, Oasis was riding high off the success of their second album, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, and an entire generation of British fans were entranced by Noel and Liam Gallagher’s earnest, po-faced lyricism and catchy acoustic tunes. They were big, to be sure, but their decision to host a two-day gig at Knebworth House in Hertfordshire on August 10th and 11th, 1996, was a surprise both to fans and organizers. Knebworth, after all, was the kind of venue that hosted legends like Led Zeppelin and Queen. Even so, the event became one of the biggest concerts in English history, drawing nearly a quarter-million people to Knebworth’s stages between the two days. And, for those die-hard Oasis fans, it would prove to be one of the most pivotal weekends of their lives....
TIFF Review: Last Night in Soho Thrives More as a Tribute to ’60s London Glitz Than Coherent Horror
This review is part of our coverage of the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival. The Pitch: Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie), a sheltered young woman with an all-encompassing 1960s obsession, leaves the English countryside home she shares with her grandmother to study fashion in London. When life in the dorms leaves her feeling stressed and isolated, Ellie finds a room of her own to rent in Soho. At first, the move seems ideal: Her landlady, Miss Collins (Diana Rigg, in her final role) is stern but kind. The room appeals to Ellie’s need for space and her aesthetic. And it comes with an exciting bonus: Every night, she’s transported to 1966, where she follows a glamorous young woman named Sandy (Anya Taylor-Joy) as she romps through Swinging London’s nightlife. Alternately watching Sandy...
TIFF Review: Listening to Kenny G Explores What Makes Him So Beloved (And Despised)
This review is part of our coverage of the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival. The Pitch: When some people think of Kenny G, they think of the platinum-selling recording artist who’s shaped their childhoods, soothed their workplaces, and even soundtracked the most intimate moments in their lives. But for others, the thought of Kenny G fills them with scorn. He’s a sellout, a fake, a mop-haired purveyor of anodyne saxophone schlock. He disrespects the improvisational, group-centered dynamics of jazz in favor of treacly solo showmanship, and — even worse — subjected the world to “smooth jazz.” The man’s a paradox wrapped in an enigma topped with a curly perm he’s maintained since the 1980s — the best-selling instrumentalist of all time who nonetheless remains a pop-culture punchli...
Mary Elizabeth Winstead Kicks Ass in the Derivative but Brutal Actioner Kate: Review
The Pitch: Kate (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is your classic stone-cold movie assassin: She’s a crack shot, has nerves of steel, and (in the fashion of a dozen female hitmen before her) was trained from childhood to kill by a friendly, paternal handler (Woody Harrelson) who will almost certainly prove a thorn in her side by film’s end. But she’s looking to retire, and has to go on — you guessed it — one last job to do it. Things get complicated when unseen forces fatally poison her, giving her only 24 hours to find out who’s responsible and make them pay before she croaks. To do it, she’ll have to team up with a rambunctious young teenager (Miku Martineau) — whose father she killed on a prior mission — to tear through the dueling halves of the Japanese mafia. Netflix and Kill: One of Net...
In Candyman, Art, Violence and Real-Life Horrors Coalesce: Review
The Pitch: Set in modern day Chicago, Candyman, the “remake” of the iconic 1992 film of the same name, turns out not to be a remake at all. Directed by Nia DaCosta, it’s more of an addition to the series’ original story (which itself is based on a short story from Clive Barker entitled “The Forbidden”), than it is a retelling of Bernard Rose’s cult classic. 1992’s Candyman is widely regarded as a staple in the horror genre. It’s told from the scope of Helen Lyle, a graduate student who travels to Chicago’s storied Cabrini-Green projects in order to co-write a thesis focusing urban legends and folklore. When she goes further into her research, she eventually learns of the city’s most intriguing urban legend, Candyman. As her obsession with the story increases, it forces Lyle on a path of se...
With Expected Biopic Cheese, Jennifer Hudson Pays Tribute to the Queen in Respect: Review
The Pitch: A groundbreaking biopic is an inherent contradiction. When a beloved star dies, mourning fans want to relive their magic, not wallow in their darkness. Productions usually must tread lightly on the darkness, anyway, to avoid a lawsuit from a subject’s estate. And in Aretha Franklin’s case, even two and a half hours is not enough time to unpack the ways a Black woman, a victim of sexual assault raised in the Jim Crow era-turned- international superstar, could become a “diva.” How does a dramatic retelling of a human being’s life avoid cliche? The Queen of Soul’s story has been told before — first in a 1999 memoir with David Ritz, then in a more honest biography by the author in 2014, and most recently in a National Geographic docuseries. But her film has been in development for n...
Zola Turns a Twitter Thread Into a Thrilling Dark Comedy: Review
This review originally ran as part of our Sundance 2020 coverage and has been updated as of June 2021. The Pitch: “Y’all wanna hear a story about why me & this bitch here fell out????????” began Aziah “Zola” Wells’ epic 2015 Twitter thread, a near-mythic tale of strippers, murder, and kidnappings that went immediately viral. Five years later, here we are, with the first film ever derived from a series of tweets, recounting the story of how Zola (Taylour Paige) falls in with a fellow stripper named Stefani (Riley Keough), who ends up roping her into a road trip to Tampa with her boyfriend Derrek (Succession‘s Cousin Greg himself, Nicholas Braun) and her “roommate” X (Colman Domingo). But it doesn’t take long before Zola figures out the real score: Stefani turns out to be a sex work...
Steven Soderbergh’s No Sudden Move Is Another Dynamite Heist: Tribeca Review
The Pitch: Steven Soderbergh has been busier than ever since returning to filmmaking in 2017; No Sudden Move is his six feature in less than four years, premiering at the Tribeca Festival before making its way to HBO Max in July. No Sudden Move follows Curt Goynes (Don Cheadle) and Ronald Russo (Benicio del Toro) who are hired to “babysit” the family of Matt Wertz (David Harbour) at gunpoint while fellow criminal Charley (Kieran Culkin) takes Matt to retrieve a valuable, unspecified document from Matt’s boss’s office. Sounds simple enough, but the complications spiderweb out like cracked glass: Matt’s wife Mary (Amy Semietz) isn’t certain whether to trust her husband; Ronald and Curt aren’t sure whether to trust their shady boss Jones (Brendan Fraser); add in Ronald’s girlfriend Vanessa (J...
Roadrunner Is a Devastating Portrait of Anthony Bourdain’s Life and Death: Tribeca Review
When Anthony Bourdain died of suicide in 2018, it hit the world with a force of an earthquake: he was a man who coupled a devil-may-care cynicism with a huge, beating heart that shone through in everything from his dishes to his documentaries. In that spirit, Morgan Neville‘s Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain takes us straightforwardly through Bourdain’s highs and lows: His early days as a chef, his runaway success with Kitchen Confidential, the travel shows that would come, his struggles with drug addiction on both sides of his life, and so much more. His friends and colleagues pop on screen as talking heads — John Lurie, brother Chris, fellow chef David Chang — reflecting on his incredible, mercurial nature…before shaking their heads at what he’d become near the en...
The Conjuring 3 Chucks Scares in Favor of a Supernatural Cop Thriller: Review
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-06-05T01:52:05+00:00“>June 4, 2021 | 9:52pm ET The Pitch: In 1981, paranormal investigators/real-life-con-artists-but-nevermind Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) are on the front lines of yet another demonic possession — this time of eight-year-old David Glatzel (Julian Hilliard), who pretzels his body and speaks in tongues while under the influence of a demonic force. Their exorcism is interrupted, however, by the intervention of Arne Johnson (Ruairi O’Connor), boyfriend of David’s sister Debbie (Sarah Catherine Hook), who draws the demon out of young David…and into himself. It’s not long after that that Arne commits a murder while ostensibly under the influe...
