THE FASCINATING BACKSTORY OF ‘FIDDLER ON THE ROOF’
Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen is no ordinary behind-the-scenes documentary. For one thing, it chronicles the adaptation of a musical play that qualifies as a genuine phenomenon. Based on a story originally told in Yiddish, it has turned out…
ALL HAIL ‘THE DUKE’
If the rampant bloodiness of The Northman and the hyperkineticism of Everything Everywhere All At Once don’t strike your fancy you would do well to check out The Duke, an unmistakably British import starring Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren. Its quiet charm stakes a…
THE HAND OF GOD: AN INSPIRED IMPORT
Paolo Sorrentino has made some exceptional films, including ‘Il Divo’ and ‘The Great Beauty’ (my favorite) but he says it took twenty years—and the courage he derived from watching Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma—to tell his own coming-of-age story in The…
JOCKEY: BETTING ON CLIFTON COLLINS, JR.
Many character actors never land a leading role, despite having proven themselves in film after film (from The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit to Traffic and Capote). Clifton Collins, Jr. has been handed a golden opportunity in Jockey by director Clint Bentley and his co-screenwriter Greg Kwedar.…
LICORICE PIZZA: VALLEY HIGH
Paul Thomas Anderson grew up in the suburban L.A. sprawl known as the San Fernando Valley and has set several of his films there (notably Boogie Nights, Magnolia and Punch Drunk Love). His latest is a flashback to 1973, a kaleidoscopic series…
PARALLEL MOTHERS: ALMODÓVAR’S LATEST
Pedro Almodóvar is a master stylist and storyteller. As a longtime fan I am glad he is so prolific, because if one of his films doesn’t meet my (high) expectations I console myself with the knowledge that there is…
BEING THE RICARDOS: IN BLACK & WHITE AND COLOR
I’m not a fan of show-business biopics, on the whole. Too often the leading actors can’t capture what made the stars they’re playing so special. Others succumb to overly familiar Hollywood storytelling tropes. Being the Ricardos is a rare exception because…
