Excerpt: The religious overtones come towards the end of this searing examination of racial politics during the 1960s. And when they arrive, in a sequence that is most assuredly a shout-out to the Last Supper, director/co-writer Shaka King has earned the right, and then some, to invoke the metaphor
Excerpt: If you don’t know about the 1969 murder of Chicago Black Panthers Chairman Fred Hampton at the behest of J. Edgar Hoover, prepare to be shocked. If you do know the story, prepare to watch this film with a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach.
Excerpt: Shaka King has made a powerful film about loyalty and treachery and the continuing struggle for Black self-determination. In the wake of the George Floyd protests of last summer, which drew attention to state-sanctioned violence and murder perpetrated against Black people, King’s movie is as timely as ever.
Excerpt: Robin Wright makes her directorial debut with a clichéd story that shows her capable of directing actors and shepherding a nice production. What she hasn’t done is buff out some of the more questionable aspects of the script
Excerpt: Taking full advantage of its awe-striking setting, ‘Land’ explores a woman’s path to recovery after unspeakable tragedy and is held up by delicate direction and a pair of soulful performances from Robin Wright and Demián Bichir.
Excerpt: Overall, ‘Casanova’ is overlong, unsympathetic, miscast, and a failure of tone. That’s not to say it’s entirely without interest, however; this is Fellini, so there’s always the possibility that some carnival with a 7-foot woman attended by two dwarfs in powdered wigs is waiting around the next bend.
Excerpt: In Wiseman’s eyes, no detail is too small or too unimportant to depict on screen; he manages to elevate seemingly mundane moments into something cinematic simply by virtue of pointing his camera at them. With a total runtime of more than 10 hours, this loose trilogy of films paints a nuanced portrait of the wide range of work that is necessary if we want to even attempt to keep the so-called “American Experiment” from imploding.
Excerpt: We watch [everything] with the implicit request [to] forgive him because he’s a dying old man. No technical or artistic success overcomes [ignoring that request’s danger].
Excerpt: Bemusement abounds, as does amusement, and when it’s all over, don’t fight the urge to prove that you are not actually a brain in a laboratory jar.
Excerpt: A sort of ouroboros that simultaneously travels forwards and backwards to make it so we as viewers ascribe meaning to moments before fully grasping how they truly go together.
Excerpt: Newly issued on a blu-ray packed with extras by Arrow Video, it is fascinating to regard the work of director Chan-wook Park (“Oldboy,” “The Handmaiden”) before his vengeance trilogy catapulted him to global recognition.
Excerpt: THE NIGHT creates an internal logic that is easily perceptible, while also being tantalizingly beyond comprehension. The suspense builds slowly but relentlessly, gearing up for a resolution that is a psychic shock.
Excerpt: The road trip scenario really works here, that old Fiat Autotrail Cheyenne giving the film an intimate, character-defining space while the Lake District and the stars Tusker knows so well provide the film a larger-than-life grandeur.
Excerpt: A slow-roll, country drive of a film with brief pot holes of drama. Macqueen offers a flat structure, a sort of calm before the storm atmosphere, but it keeps his film from leaving a lasting impression.
Excerpt: This sprawling, Dickensonian tale may address a particularly Indian mindset, but the travails of its protagonist will be easily recognizable to any Western country, like the United States, with a treacherously imbalanced economy
Excerpt: Its ruminations of socio-economic inequality and the nature of privilege are compelling in the moment, but don’t quite have the impact that it could have. However, Adarsh Gourav delivers a terrific performance.
Excerpt: Sad that the last part of this flick seems thrown together much too quick. But acting in this pic is strong which helps the story move along .
Excerpt: [Lee Hancock’s] central idea, the thing that he spends two hours working towards, makes for an unsatisfying climax while several other themes he’s introduced, like the small details that can crack a case, get left by the wayside.
Excerpt: Channeling Se7en, John Lee Hancock sets up a grisly case with the stunted veteran, the brash youngster, and the creepy suspect – then he bogs it all down with procedure and stake outs. A promising misfire.
Excerpt: Hancock’s inspired choice to make the object of Deke and Jim’s quest secondary [brings] with it some narrative issues once we move closer to the end.
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