Courtesy photo
MOVIE REVIEW
Bellbottom (2021)
Is there anything Akshay Kumar can’t do? Over the course of “Bellbottom” he does a lot of manful striding, filmed from a low angle, so we can best appreciate his magnificence. He rides a motorbike with sunglasses but without a helmet. He has a training montage in the woods involving a lot of chin-ups and exercises with tires. He is invited to sing at a wedding reception, which then involves a montage of him and Vaani Kapoor (badly underused as his clever and perky wife Radhika) having a much better time on a train in Scotland than usual. And as a spy/analyst specializing in airplane hijacks – which were an unfortunately regular occurrence in India in the mid-’80s – he is able to boss around senior politicians of several different countries, up to and including Indira Gandhi (Lara Dutta) herself. And while this adoration is a little silly, it’s not remotely ridiculous. Somehow in the context of the plot, Mr. Kumar's star wattage is justified.
Continue reading “A View to a Thrill” »
Anna Kooris/A24
MOVIE REVIEW
Zola (2021)
The timing of its release might end up working very well for “Zola.” The frenetic depiction of a weekend from hell, full of sex, guns and godawful decisions in the Floridian heat, it certainly gives us a sensory rush that the pandemic has deprived us of (for better or for worse). It has two equally matched but differently heroic performances from Taylour Paige and Riley Keough; and despite its wild origins and even wilder subject matter, it follows a fairly standard narrative arc: a young woman gets in over her head and suddenly discovers what she’s truly capable of. But director Janicza Bravo makes a silly decision towards the end that dilutes the impact of her heroine’s sudden struggle for survival in favor of cheap laughs.
Continue reading “A Long Road to Hoe” »
Maria Rusche
MOVIE REVIEW
Dating & New York (2021)
Romantic comedies are such an endangered species who cares if “Dating & New York” lives up to its generic title. The fact an adorable movie concerned only with the happiness of pretty young people has been made these days is automatically worthy of high praise.
Continue reading “Benefits With Friends” »
Logan Floyd
MOVIE REVIEW
Poser (2021)
“Poser” should have been about how a young woman finds her voice through the words of others, but sadly it doesn’t quite come together. Lennon (Sylvie Mix) is in that liminal time where she’s an adult but doesn’t feel like one. While she’s old enough to drink, she still lives like a student in an efficiency apartment in Columbus, Ohio. She is desperate to be part of the city’s artistic community while not quite yet comfortable sharing her own art, so she starts a podcast in order to explore the scene and carve herself a place in it. Since the scene is small and young, the participants pay each other courteous attention, and welcome Lennon’s interest.
Continue reading “Almost Infamous” »
Adrian M. Pruett
MOVIE REVIEW
Venus as a Boy (2021)
Ty Hodges wrote, directed and starred in this as a present to himself; and right up until the final shot that choice makes beautiful sense. The point of the movie is how black artists tend to be pigeonholed due to their race, and are not allowed to explore themes or interests beyond “the black experience.” Well, of course they are allowed. There’s just no money in it.
Continue reading “When Worlds Collide” »
Tribeca Film Festival
MOVIE REVIEW
Roaring 20's (2021)
Richard Linklater is the first person director Elisabeth Vogler thanks in the credits, and quite right too – “Slacker’s” influence on “Roaring 20’s” is inescapable. In a single, unbroken shot which Ms. Vogler filmed herself, we are given a slice of hipster Parisian life on midsummer’s night 2020. The exact evening matters because traditionally the city celebrates the longest day of the year with street music on every corner; and the lively street life the actors must navigate was clearly shot in real time. The action begins outside the Pyramid of the Louvre and ends in Buttes-Charmont, a hillside park on Paris’s western side with spectacular views of the city.
Continue reading “Street Scene” »
Brett Jutkiewicz
MOVIE REVIEW
Italian Studies (2021)
Vanessa Kirby is a mesmerizing screen presence and “Italian Studies” is designed to exploit that to the maximum – but exploitation is all this film does. Writer-director Adam Leon has wasted everyone’s talents on a juvenile fantasy about a woman in distress.
Continue reading “Casual Encounters” »
Jamal Solomon
MOVIE REVIEW
as of yet (2021)
As a masterclass in how to make the best of what you’ve got, “as of yet” is well worth seeing, both for its subject and its circumstances. This is a movie set in 2020 New York City so therefore of the pandemic, but it is not about the pandemic. Writer-co-director-star Taylor Garron threads a very difficult line there, but manages to pull it off. The restrictions of living at a distance from other people become the point, and it’s clever how this is managed.
Continue reading “Stir Crazy” »
Anthony Thompson
MOVIE REVIEW
Queen of Glory (2021)
King of Glory is the name of the bookstore Sarah Obeng (Nana Mensah, also the writer-director) unexpectedly inherits when her mother suddenly dies. It’s a Christian bookstore in the Bronx, staffed by Pitt (Meeko Gattuso), a gentle ex-con with such alarming face tattoos everyone new he meets instantly recoils. While Sarah grew up in the store, her adulthood has been spent as a molecular neuro-oncologist, although she’s still a grad student with a heavy academic caseload. But she also has a boyfriend, fellow scientist Lyle (Adam Leon), with whom she plans to relocate to the Midwest, leaving his inconvenient wife and children behind. But the complications of the funeral rites Ghanaian culture requires means Sarah’s new life might have to start moving in another direction.
Continue reading “Reel From the Estate” »
Karina Silva
MOVIE REVIEW
No Man of God (2021)
It’s awful that a movie about a serial killer can be kind of boring. Set almost entirely inside the Florida prison where Ted Bundy (in an absolute perfect piece of casting, Luke Kirby) spends his final years, it’s about the relationship F.B.I. mindhunter Bill Hagmaier (Elijah Wood) builds with him. And while text at the start of the movie claims this is based on Mr. Hagmaier’s notes and memories, it’s fairly clear from the title there’s another agenda here.
Continue reading “Ted Talks” »