FOUR NEW DISNEY BOOKS
INK & PAINT: THE WOMEN OF WALT DISNEY’S ANIMATION by Mindy Johnson; foreword by June Foray (Disney Editions) The size and weight of this volume is matched only by its scope. Disney scholar Johnson, whose previous book detailed the…
FOCUSING ON ‘JOAN DIDION: THE CENTER WILL NOT HOLD’
There aren’t many documentaries about writers, past or present, but actor and filmmaker Griffin Dunne had unique access to author Joan Didion because she is his aunt. The result is a highly personal and revealing film that chronicles Didion…
SUBURBICON: YOU WOULDN’T WANT TO LIVE THERE
There’s no use beating about the bush: I really didn’t like this movie. It tries to embrace both social satire and black comedy but its tone is strangely somber and its approach heavy-handed. With a screenplay credited to Joel…
NOVITIATE: A PEEK INSIDE A SECRET WORLD
What motivates a girl to join a convent and give herself over to Jesus Christ? That’s the question writer-director Maggie Betts attempts to answer in her compelling drama Novitiate. The story is set in the early 1960s for a specific…
THE SQUARE: SATIRE THAT’S WORTH YOUR TIME
The Square is a sly social satire that demands patience from its audience, but like last year’s Toni Erdmann, there are ample rewards for those who stay the course. If you saw Swedish writer-director Ruben Östland’s previous film, Force Majeure, you may…
HALLOWEEN SLEEPERS AND SHOCKERS
Lists…everybody loves lists. I don’t pretend that this selection of Halloween favorites is definitive; it’s a completely arbitrary roster of movies I like and recommend. Bear in mind that I am a major wimp and will not watch graphic…
THE SEA WOLF: LONGER AND BETTER!
I’ve always liked The Sea Wolf (1941), a Warner Bros. production that eschews formula clichés and offers a meaty, intelligent story. Edward G. Robinson gives one of his best performances as the brutal, would-be intellectual Captain Wolf Larsen, with Alexander Knox…
