‘AMERICAN FICTION’ HITS THE BULL’S-EYE
Satire is a rare commodity and always has been, but Cord Jefferson’s debut film American Fiction has restored my faith in its survival. What’s more, it offers the gifted Jeffrey Wright an exceptional leading role that he plays to perfection. (You…
‘POOR THINGS’ IS WILD AND CRAZY
On the face of it, I wouldn’t have bet that I would take to Yorgos Lanthimos’s latest film, but I am crazy about Poor Things. This high-flying feminist variation on the Frankenstein tale is as wacky and unpredictable as a Tex…
‘ORIGIN’ IS A KNOCKOUT
Ava DuVernay has taken a big swing and hit a home run. Origin tells the story of how Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson pursued an idea that tied the notorious murder of Trayvon Martin to the existence of slavery in America, the…
NAPOLEON MEETS HIS WATERLOO
It’s a shame that this ambitious movie is a muddle, for director Ridley Scott has staged some of the most astonishing battle scenes ever put on film. Gigantic in scale and scope, they make the viewer feel like a…
MAESTRO IS MAGNIFICENT
I don’t know where or how Bradley Cooper got the ambition to make this powerfully challenging film, or the fortitude to both direct and co-script it while playing the leading character, but it is clearly a labor of love. Many passion projects lose something on…
MAY DECEMBER
Todd Haynes would seem an ideal choice to direct a story inspired by the real-life case of schoolteacher Mary Kay LeTourneau, who made headlines in the 1990s when she raped a 12-year-old student, then married him and raised a…
FALLEN LEAVES: A QUIET GEM
I’m a relative latecomer to the charms of Aki Kaurismäki’s work, but I’ve become a proselytizer to make up for lost time. The Finnish writer-director who brought us Le Havre and The Other Side of Hope is backwith a thoroughly entertaining, completely unpredictable…
