Kristen Correll
MOVIE REVIEW
The Fallout (2021)
Revolving around the aftermath of a school shooting, “The Fallout” feels at once remote, thanks to Covid-19-mandated distance learning during the 2020 school year, yet urgent, due to mass shootings in Atlanta and Boulder, Colo., in early 2021.
Giulio Biccari
MOVIE REVIEW
The Lost Sons (2021)
Not every film should be made. There are obvious reasons why Paul Fronczak’s story deserves to be told; and over the course of the film it becomes brutally clear why he needs to tell the story, and yet. Some stories people are just not ready to tell, not now and maybe not ever.
SXSW
MOVIE REVIEW
Twyla Moves (2021)
What did you do in 2020? While under lockdown, did you attempt to choreograph a new ballet, to be performed over Zoom, with dancers split between New York, Los Angeles, Copenhagen, Denmark, and St. Petersburg, Russia? Did that mean some directors were able to take this as a hook to put together your career retrospective, interweaving 60 years of your life and work as one of America’s leading choreographers? Well, if you did, Twyla Tharp’s lawyers will probably be in touch, because she did it first.
Well Go USA
MOVIE REVIEW
Better Days (2019)
Repping Hong Kong in the Best International Feature category at the 2021 Academy Awards, “Better Days” is emblematic of the current state of Chinese filmmaking. Its connection to Hong Kong is peripheral at best: Its Canadian director, Derek Tsang, is the son of Hong Kong entertainer titan Eric Tsang. The Jiu Yuexi novel that serves as the film’s basis has been widely accused by Chinese netizens of plagiarizing works of Japanese mystery writer Keigo Higashino. Starring the immensely popular Chinese actress Zhou Dongyu and Mandopop idol Jackson Yee, “Better Days” does seem unusually polished for a Chinese commercial release – meaning it has that Hong Kong gloss lightyears removed from the Fifth Generation fare that China is mostly known for Stateside.
One Plus One/Sundance Institute
MOVIE REVIEW
Violation (2021)
This review contains spoilers, so consider this fair warning. Amputation and dismemberment seem to have been a running theme throughout the 2021 Sundance Film Festival selections, and “Violation” certainly has its share. Yet, this rape revenge flick is the only offering (that this reviewer is aware of) at the Sundance virtual screening portal that requires age verification, presumably for prominently featuring a fully erect penis.
SXSW
MOVIE REVIEW
The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson (2021)
Leah Purcell wrote, co-produced, directed and stars in “The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson,” a howl of despair against Australian racism and misogyny. Ms. Purcell adapted the film from a stage play she also wrote based on a short story by Henry Lawson, the deaf writer whose work is some of modern Australia’s foundational art. A woman alone on a farm, who must protect her children against threats of the animal and human variety, is an archetype of suffering. And my god, does the heroine of this movie suffer. But the movie’s strange inability to focus on the most important parts of her suffering weakens its overall impact, which is a crying shame.
Steve Price
MOVIE REVIEW
Lily Topples the World (2021)
In the United States, right now, there are about 15 professional domino artists – that is, people who make a living setting little plastic disks up to knock them down in beautiful, complicated patterns. Only one of them is a woman, Lily Hevesh, who began posting her domino art videos on YouTube age nine. Now she has millions of followers (2 million the time of filming; 3.15 million as of March 23, 2021) and a career with enough momentum that it was worth dropping out of her freshman year of Rensselaer Polytechnic to pursue it. Jeremy Workman, who directed, edited and co-filmed this documentary, spent three years with Ms. Hevesh as she goes to work in her 19th and 20th year. This is a movie about work, and the ways in which work feeds into your virtual identity and vice versa. But on both of these issues, it is strangely guarded, which means the movie sets up a great many questions which it fails to knock down.
Tamás Dobos
MOVIE REVIEW
Natural Light (2021)
“Natural Light,” set during WWII, often feels like classic awards bait. Its visual and thematic austerity is stark. The film appears to center on the moral awakening of Isvván Semetka (Ferenc Szabó), a photographer turned commander of the Hungarian force occupying Soviet territories – though it’s hard to tell from his perpetual stoicism.
Jeonwonsa Film Co.Production
MOVIE REVIEW
Introduction (2021)
So what’s the Korean Woody Allen to do when his American counterpart now resides on the blacklist? If “Introduction” is any indication, Hong Sang-soo is in no hurry to distance himself from the association even if it now conjures up the alleged predator of adopted daughters rather than the chronicler of the Central Park West bourgeoisie. “Introduction” isn’t just Allenesque, it’s monochromatic Allenesque – à la “Manhattan,” “Stardust Memories,” “Zelig,” “Broadway Danny Rose,” “Shadows and Fog,” “Celebrity” et al. (See also: “The Day After,” “Grass” and “Hotel by the River.”) Continue if you want to be spoiled.
No Ficcion
MOVIE REVIEW
A Cop Movie (2021)
Alonso Ruizpalacios has pulled off something here that Christopher Nolan could only dream of. This is a movie about being in a movie, while simultaneously being a documentary about being a police officer in Mexico City. The Mexican police do not enjoy an unbesmirched reputation, and “A Cop Movie” is not going to change that. But what it does is show how ordinary people turn themselves into officers of the law, in the same way that actors turns themselves into their characters. It’s a neat metaphor, especially with a subject as complex as this.
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