THE LAST SHOWGIRL
The first feature film directed by Gia Coppola, Eleanor and Francis’s granddaughter, is a respectable but unmemorable vehicle for former Baywatch and Playboy pin-up Pamela Anderson. The script has been custom-tailored for her and she comes off well, but the film has only…
THE BRUTALIST
Every rare now and then, a performance comes along that is so organic and natural that even though one is familiar with the actor all memories of his other work recede. That’s how I felt watching Adrien Brody in The…
A COMPLETE UNKNOWN: MY FAVORITE FILM OF THE YEAR
Biographical films are a minefield, but A Complete Unknown dodges every trap and emerges as my favorite movie of 2024. No one is more surprised than I, because I’ve never been a Bob Dylan fan… but Timothée Chalamet delivers a compelling…
MARIA
The overuse of the word “iconic” has rendered it practically meaningless, but if it ever applied to a public figure it would be opera star Maria Callas. Director Pablo Larrain, having focused on two other notable women of the…
DAY OF THE FIGHT
What ever happened to genre movies? Hollywood thrived on westerns, musicals, gangster stories, hospital dramas, whodunits and the like until television consumed almost every category. The Day of the Fight isn’t trying to rewrite the playbook. It’s a boxing picture, and…
EMILIA PÉREZ: UNIQUE AND AMAZING
Phrases like “game-changer” and “cutting-edge” can’t capture just how audacious and original Emilia Pérez is. I daresay it wouldn’t or couldn’t have been made, or even conceived, just ten years ago. (Maybe five…) I am determined to praise and discuss it…
BLITZ: UNLIKE ANYTHING WE’VE SEEN BEFORE
Blitz is a powerful and somewhat disarming film about the longterm German bombing of London in 1940. One might be forgiven for expecting a kinder, gentler rendition of this horrific event because it’s told through the eyes of a 9-year-old…
