Phil Fisk/IFC Films
MOVIE REVIEW
The Trip to Spain (2017)
The third installment of the Steve Coogan-Rob Brydon-Michael Winterbottom BBC Two/Sky Atlantic six-part sitcom and companion abridged big-screen version, “The Trip to Spain” reunites the comedians and filmmaker for more culinary samplings, showbiz inside baseball, celebrity impersonations and narcissistic midlife crises. Their journey encompasses Getaria, Sos del Rey Catolico, Cuenca, La Mancha, Granada and Malaga in the titular country, this time with extra braggadocio from Mr. Coogan boasting his Oscar nod for “Philomena” and extra envy from Mr. Brydon toward James Corden’s newfound success as a talk-show host in America.
Continue reading “Brexit Stage Left” »
Robb Rosenfeld/A24
MOVIE REVIEW
The Lovers (2017)
In "The Lovers," Debra Winger and Tracy Letts play wife and husband on the brink of divorce, keeping up appearances for the sake of a visit from their son and his girlfriend. Suffering symptoms of midlife crises and ennui, Mary (Ms. Winger) and Michael (Mr. Letts) absent-mindedly drift through their workaday obligations just so they can make excuses to each other to spend time with and pacify their respective long-suffering, ultimatum-giving paramours. As the extramarital affairs grow increasingly tedious, Mary and Michael inexplicably rekindle their passion for each other — which their son, Joel (Tyler Ross), interprets as a façade presaging the marriage's inevitable dissolution.
Continue reading “Estranged Bedfellows” »
Jean-Claude Lother/Pathé
MOVIE REVIEW
Rock’n Roll (2017)
Guillaume Canet directs, co-writes and stars in “Rock’n Roll,” a navel-gazing musical satire on the French film industry that centers on him and real-life partner, Marion Cotillard.
After a much-younger costar (Camille Rowe) breaks the news to him that he’s no longer a cinematic sex symbol, the plot thrusts Guillaume (Mr. Canet) into full midlife crisis, partying and carousing until embarrassing cell phone footage of his debauchery ends up on YouTube and shooting up Botox to a point that jeopardizes the continuity of his new film. He’s still able to line up directorial projects thanks to his Oscar-winning girlfriend, Marion (Ms. Cotillard), but she’s preoccupied with mastering a Quebecois accent (and doing Céline Dion tributes) in preparation for an upcoming film role.
Continue reading “Requiem pour un fou” »
Jaap Buitendijk/TriStar Pictures
MOVIE REVIEW
T2 Trainspotting (2017)
Being young is easy, in that many of your choices are made for you. You can’t control where you live or where you go to school. Your social circles are the ones your family moves in. The kids you spend time with on the playground become your friends. In many places with a homogenous background you all know the same things. You sing the same songs; tell the same stories; eat the same food; go the same places.
And then you grow up some, and start making choices. To cut your hair this way or that way. To play this sport or that instrument. To watch this program on the telly instead of that one; to love this band instead of that one; to have this tattoo or that piercing; to love this person instead of that one. So you grow apart from certain people because of these choices, and closer to others due to your interest in the same things. And then you fall in love and choose someone to spend your time with and that narrows things down still. And then you wake up one day – when you’re much older than you’d ever thought you’d be – and you have to reckon with all of your choices.
The 1996 film “Trainspotting” was famously about a group of junkies who “choose not to choose.” All their energy was on getting money for their next fix. The ferocity and single-mindedness with which they pursued their happiness through drugs catapulted “Trainspotting” past being another after-school special into a worldwide phenomenon. Its lust for life (sorry) was a rare thing, and the movie has absolutely stood the test of time. A sequel was not, of course, inevitable; who could imagine the characters would all live so long? But here it is; and here we are.
Continue reading “Bust for Life” »
Studiocanal
MOVIE REVIEW
Free Fire (2017)
Obsessive readers of the small print, having spotted that Edgar Wright was an executive producer of Ben Wheatley‘s “Sightseers” and drawn some conclusions about that film’s intentions and wobbly rate of return, can go to town on “Free Fire” once the name of Martin Scorsese appears in the same capacity. It features a closed group of armed characters in a sealed location, a weapons deal that collapses in mistrust and sweary machismo, plus some ironic popular music on the soundtrack; so the director is hugging a certain strain of American crime story pretty tightly, at a time when that strain has become so naturalized as to have lost a lot of its virulence and surely all its surprise. Mr. Wheatley has a distinctive cinematic temperament, a very British high-altitude remove that on the domestic scene stands out so much that it might count as auteurist; but it isn’t the right tool for all jobs.
Continue reading “Crapshoot” »
2016 Tribeca Film Festival
MOVIE REVIEW
Bad Rap (2016)
The documentary “Bad Rap” encapsulates the travails of Asian-American rappers striving to make their voices heard. Some profiled here are relatively well known, most notably Awkwafina, who has parlayed her viral hit into VH1 punditry and bit movie roles. Another is Dumbfounded, an underground artist who recently garnered mainstream attention spitting verses on #OscarsSoWhite and #WhitewashedOut with the viral track “Safe.” Jin, the first Asian-American rapper to score a major label deal following an impressive freestyle-battle winning streak on BET, gets honorable-mention treatment.
Continue reading “Unsung Heroes” »
Emmanuel Guionet/2016 Tribeca Film Festival
MOVIE REVIEW
Reset (2017)
The documentary “Reset” recounts Benjamin Millepied’s brief tenure as the director of dance at the Paris Opera Ballet. Mr. Millepied rose to fame as a principal at the New York City Ballet, and went on to found the L.A. Dance Project and choreograph Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan.” But he remained an outsider to the Paris Opera Ballet for not having risen within its ranks.
Continue reading “Part Company” »
Steve Dietl/Bleecker Street
MOVIE REVIEW
Elvis & Nixon (2016)
Extrapolating entirely from a photo of Richard Nixon and Elvis Presley shaking hands in the Oval Office, “Elvis & Nixon” reimagines the events leading up to the curious meeting between the king of rock and roll (Michael Shannon) and the disgraced former president (Kevin Spacey). Suffice it to say, there’s less value to the history lesson on offer here than, say, the one from “Frost/Nixon.”
Continue reading “Suspicious Minds” »
Sony Pictures Classics
MOVIE REVIEW
Toni Erdmann (2016)
This deeply strange German movie is about the limits of not only capitalism but also the human heart. Although it is focused on a German father and daughter, it is set mainly in Romania with characters who almost all speak at least three languages fluently. There is a genuinely outré sex scene which you will remember every time you see petit fours for the rest of your life. It’s being described as a comedy; but since the comedy is an odd combination of pathos and slapstick, it’s not the relaxing kind of laughter. In other words, this is a genuine one-off.
Continue reading “Daddy Issues” »
David Bornfriend/A24
MOVIE REVIEW
Moonlight (2016)
"Moonlight" depicts the coming-of-age of a gay black man in three chapters, each taking its heading from the moniker he goes by during that distinct phase in his life and representing a corresponding metamorphosis.
Continue reading “Forlorn This Way” »