Pieces of a Woman is the English-language debut of Kata Wéber and Kornél Mundruczó, the Hungarian writer-director team behind White God, a film told from the perspective of a dog,…
There’s a reason the rape-revenge genre is so straightforwardly named. When you’re dealing with such distressing violence, blindsiding the audience is unadvised—you’re already putting them through a lot. It takes…
Wonder Woman was a treat, wasn’t it? It’s truly special when a blockbuster can tap into something universal. After its release in 2017, viewers worldwide reported bursting into spontaneous tears…
“You haven’t cried enough this year!” threatened Pixar, dropping a movie at the tail end of 2020. “Yes, we definitely have!” we all replied, because we definitely have, and shedding…
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, an adaptation of the August Wilson play of the same name, is the final film appearance of Chadwick Boseman. The loss of such an enormously talented…
Wives in crime films have had a notoriously rough go of it. Just ask Kay Adams, wife of Mafia don Michael Corleone for half The Godfather trilogy. Though she’s promised…
A musical! A musical’s the thing! A glitzy, upbeat production full of elaborate dance numbers and positive vibes—that’s the cure for the 2020 blues. Well, that and a vaccine, but…
The films of David Fincher are so unique and identifiable (the murky green tint helps) that it’s easy to forget he’s a studio director. Not a single one of his…
To the woefully uncoordinated (a club of which I am a lifetime member), drumming is a feat just short of a miracle. Major props to Riz Ahmed, then, for learning…
This year’s Ammonite and last year’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire have a lot in common. Both of them are about a forbidden romance between two women, one a…
Reviewing movies during an ever-worsening pandemic can feel a bit hazardous. That partly comes down to a weird awards show rule: in order for a movie to qualify for the…
Eavesdrop on 10 film school dorm rooms and you’ll overhear eight guys saying “dude, we should write and direct a film starring us as ourselves.” (The ninth room was film…
