Menu
GEMINI MAN: TWO WILL SMITHS FOR THE PRICE OF ONE
I was wary approaching Gemini Man, which I saw at 120 frames per second (about four times normal film speed) in 3-D. I got a headache the last time I watched a high-frame-rate feature but I came away from this…
PARASITE: THE BEST FILM I’VE SEEN THIS YEAR
I love watching movies without knowing much about them; that’s why I avoid trailers and try not to read articles in the run-up to a film’s release. Seeing Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite with a clean slate made it an overwhelming experience:…
‘JOKER’ IS RELENTLESSLY GRIM
I hated this movie and that’s no joke. (In the spirit of full disclosure, my wife thought it was a great piece of social commentary.) Officially a prequel to the Batman series, this parable takes place in the not-too-distant past, during…
PAIN AND GLORY: THE LATEST FROM ALMODÓVAR
So many of Pedro Almodóvar’s best films have been autobiographical that I hesitate to criticize this one for oversharing, but that’s how I felt at first. The filmmaker even chronicles his medical issues in some detail. I would never…
EDDIE MURPHY SCORES IN ‘DOLEMITE IS MY NAME’
Eddie Murphy is back and on top of his game, playing underground comedian and proto-rap artist Rudy Ray Moore in Dolemite Is My Name. It’s a role he was born to play and, to use the vernacular, he kills it. Rudy…
LUCY IN THE SKY: EARTHBOUND
Lucy in the Sky is an ideal vehicle for Natalie Portman, cast as an astronaut who finds outer space thrilling and life back on earth somewhat less so. Affecting a Southern accent and sporting a short haircut, she creates a…
MEMORY: THE ORIGINS OF ALIEN
Alexandre O. Philippe specializes in documentaries about notable movies, including 78/52, a brilliant exploration of Alfred Hitchcock’s shower scene from Psycho. Memory is somewhat different; it isn’t a “making-of” film, as that has been done before. This is more an examination of the…
