“The Post” is Propelled by a Marvelous Meryl Streep

Steven Spielberg’s latest historical drama The Post is a funny little animal. The film is based on Kay Graham’s decision to publish findings from the classified Pentagon Papers in The Washington Post. Graham, played by best living actor front-runner Meryl Streep, was the first woman publisher of a major newspaper, and the film details her struggle … Read more

Devastating War Stories in Triplicate: The Powerful “Dunkirk”

In Dunkirk, Christopher Nolan tells three inter-twined stories of differing lengths and at different speeds, showing how the terrors of war and heroic acts associated with it can exist on various time scales. There are instantaneous acts of heroism, the bread and butter of war films, but also more considered, lengthy heroics on day or … Read more

“Murder on the Orient Express” is a Weak and Rote Dumbing-Down of the Whodunit

Based on the Agatha Christie mystery novel of the same name, Kenneth Branagh’s Murder on the Orient Express disappoints by relegating the key elements of the mystery genre to mere mundane repetition.  All of the hard-boiled fun of Christie’s source material ends up feeling like a bland paint-by-numbers.   The movie contains a star-studded cast, with … Read more

“A Ghost Story” Ponders Time, Legacy, and the Meaning of Loss

Writer-director David Lowery’s A Ghost Story is a contemplative tone poem on the vast expanses of time, captured in a single relationship between two people.  As the two main characters reach a turning point about where they are going to live, a car accident removes one of them from the equation – except that it … Read more

The Immaculate Magic of the World of Barry Lyndon

The eighth entry in my series, Stanley Kubrick – A Year of Masterpieces. Barry Lyndon is one of Stanley Kubrick’s most overlooked films. Cinephiles and casual fans alike are quick to list a dozen other Kubrick films as a favorite before even considering this film – if they even care for it at all. But, … Read more

“The Beguiled” Expresses Intrigue with a Quiet Lust and Sexiness

Sofia Coppola’s The Beguiled, a remake of a 1971 film starring Clint Eastwood, was a bit of a darling at Cannes this year. Coppola took home Best Director at the festival, which was only the second time a woman won the award. The film itself is a peculiar kind of Civil War era drama charged … Read more

Patreon Pick #1: Marin Ade’s “Toni Erdmann” (2016)

Writer-Director Marin Ade’s Toni Erdmann, Germany’s entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2016 Oscars, is a profoundly strange and wonderful film.  It wanders between awkward comedy, heartfelt drama, and outright farce with a complete control of its own voice and tone.  It’s an impressive and weird movie, and even though it stretches to … Read more

“The Dark Horse” Addresses Mental Health, Expectation, and Community

The opening sequence of The Dark Horse depicts Genesis Potini wandering through the rain muttering to himself, intercut with his older brother teaching him the game of chess when they were both children.  He stops in a store with a few chessboards set up, and continues his frantic word salad as the shop owners look … Read more

“Pawn Sacrifice”: Bobby Fischer’s Pyrrhic World Chess Championship

The name “Bobby Fischer” is synonymous with high-level chess, even decades after the Brooklyn-born grandmaster won his World Chess Championship match against the reigning champion from the Soviet Union, Boris Spasskey.  Staged during the height of the Cold War, the match was seen by both sides as an opportunity to prove intellectual superiority.  Pawn Sacrifice … Read more

“My Cousin Rachel” – a Period Romantic Mystery with Gorgeous Visuals

Roger Michell’s adaptation of the Daphne du Maurier novel My Cousin Rachel peddles in interesting camera work, astonishing visuals, and solid performances, but lacks a thorough command of tone.  The film feels obsessed with the ambiguity of its central romantic mystery, while at the same time laying on the cinematic clues with an unbelievably heavy … Read more