‘MINARI’ IS AN ARTISTIC TRIUMPH
To have won both the Grand Jury prize and the Audience Award at last year’s Sundance Film Festival indicates, correctly, that Minari is an artistic triumph as well as a crowd-pleaser. Clearly a passion project for writer-director Lee Isaac Chung, inspired…
JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH
Judas and the Black Messiah is a provocative movie title and the film that bears it lives up to the expectations it generates. Director Shaka King plunges us into action in the opening scene, where a little-remembered figure named Bill…
LAND: AN IMPRESSIVE DEBUT FILM FROM ROBIN WRIGHT
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that any feature-length film that has earned Robin Wright’s complete commitment—as actress and director—would be worthwhile. But Wright’s film is more than merely competent: her bywords seem to have been simplicity and honesty.…
‘LITTLE FISH’ EXPLORES A DARING IDEA
I’m not sure when Aja Gabel wrote the story that became Little Fish, but I don’t think it was during the pandemic that has seized the world. In the near-future depicted here it’s a different kind of malady that overtakes…
TWO OF US: A SENSATIONAL SLEEPER
There’s nothing more exciting to me than making a discovery. I wasn’t at the Toronto International Film Festival when Two of Us made its debut in the fall of 2019. It has played other prestigious festivals, including Los Angeles’ Outfest.…but I…
OUR FRIEND: A CLICHÉ-FREE TEARJERKER
I was tempted to dismiss Our Friend as just another movie about a loved one’s battle with a fatal disease. Then I watched it. Yes, it’s a tearjerker, but it’s derived from a first-person article from Esquire that won the National Magazine Award.…
‘THE LITTLE THINGS’ DON’T ADD UP
One of the seven deadly sins of moviemaking—perhaps the deadliest—is boring an audience. Having just been victimized by The Little Things the least I can do is share my experience with you. Denzel Washington stars as a former LAPD…
