Excerpt: Where Honey Boy is most successful is in the opening sequence. With mostly quick cuts of Otis between performing on film sets and out of control in his car or dressing room, there is the suggestion that Otis is not totally able to distinguish life in or out of the studio, an existence of constant disorientation.
Excerpt: What makes The Report timely is that it offers some perspective on the Mueller Report and the current arguments about Executive authority. Essentially, who is presenting the narrative, and what information is to be shared and with whom?
Excerpt: : …both classic Scorsese and a departure, a mob film featuring music evocative of the time yet no Rolling Stones…youthful ambition now aged remorse, De Niro his lead for the ninth time while Pacino is cast for the first…a triumph.
Excerpt: The Irishman combines the meditative pace of Silence, the sharp humor and style of The Wolf of Wall Street, and the narrative of Martin Scorsese’s greatest gangster movies to form a self-reflective magnum opus.
Excerpt: Few films can justify a length longer than 90 minutes, but even at three-and-a-half hours, Martin Scorsese’s melancholy mob movie The Irishman still feels lean, and very mean.
Excerpt: The results are masterful, a testament to the abilities of a filmmaker who hasn’t slowed down, doing all that’s needed to not only stay relevant but make other filmmakers try harder.
Excerpt: Emmerich is more concerned with archetypes and fireballs. He opted for the Saturday matinee ‘golly gee’ version instead of a more sober accounting – Starship Troopers instead of Saving Private Ryan.
Excerpt: This isn’t the first time writer/director Pedro Almodóvar has gone the autobiographical route in his filmmaking, but this may be the most moving, his 22nd full length theatrical feature carefully considered, deeply felt and vulnerably revealing.
Excerpt: Pain and Glory is a colorful, funny and profound film where Pedro Almodóvar reckons with his past and career — featuring a career-best performance by Antonio Banderas.
Excerpt: With his latest feature Pain and Glory, Pedro Almodóvar reiterates his mastery in making the viewers immerse in his stories and emerge with their eyes drenched, even when the characters refuse to cry. Acing the central part with life-like conviction is Antonio Banderas whose vulnerable eyes and fidgety body language catapult the film to realms of greatness.
Excerpt: In adapting Stephen King’s “The Shining” sequel, writer/director Mike Flanagan has pulled off the rarity of creating a film which bests its source material. Far better than either chapter of “It,” “Doctor Sleep” isn’t perfect…
Excerpt: Adapting a book that’s a sequel to both a modern classic novel and an iconic film is a mammoth task, and this one comes pretty close to accomplishing both.
Excerpt: A series of victims are paralyzed while having their bellies ripped open, much in the same way tarantulas are killed by the black wasp. The victims all seem to have a connection with a spa.
Excerpt: A reporter and a promiscuous young woman try to solve a series of child killings in a remote southern Italian town rife with superstition and a distrust of outsiders.
Excerpt: Co-directors Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles discuss Bacurau, their collaboration, the film’s sound design, and how they embraced old-fashioned filmmaking techniques from the 1970s.
Excerpt: Writer/director, Paul Harrill, takes a refreshing empathetic and gentle approach to telling a ghost story. Erin Ireland and Jim Gaffigan are terrific.
Excerpt: Don’t go into “Jojo Rabbit” expecting a side splitting comedy à la Mel Brooks. Waititi’s film is a gentler thing and Scarlett Johansson’s performance embodies his message.
Excerpt: Director Taika Waititi sees warning signs, and in the shadow of Charlie Chaplin and the Marx Brothers, confronts the uncomfortable and malign with humor, winks, and farce. Jojo Rabbit is a remarkable achievement of wit and wariness – truly one of the best films of the year.
Excerpt: [It] ultimately finds itself growing very heavy while approaching its climax. Waititi does well to make certain this shift [from irreverence] doesn’t arrive out of nowhere.
Excerpt: The very prospect of a Nazi satire is risky business but Taika Waititi pulls it off like a pro, guiding a great cast and more-than-meets-the-eye characters to a heartfelt, deeply funny, and meaningful conclusion.
