William Nicholson tackles the difficult question of how to survive a moribund marriage and accept your relationship to love in his second directorial effort. Grace (Annette Benning) and Edward (Bill Nighy) deliver exquisite performances playing a married middle-class couple who have grown apart. When Edward announces that he’s in a relationship with another woman, both […]
Continue readingFirst Love
A hardcore-pulp-yakuza-noir-madcap-joyride filled with outrageous double-crosses, close shaves, high-speed car chases, and flamboyant showdowns from Japan’s most prolific and exuberant director, Takashi Miike. At its heart, First Love, is an unshakeable romance between two rock bottom dwellers, searching for salvation in the precarious Tokyo underbelly. Society is in a troubled tailspin, corrupted by the self-serving […]
Continue readingByk (The Bull)
Amid the lawless confusion of the recently imploded USSR, Anton (live-wire leading man Yuriy Borisov) and his gang are tough street youths who regularly vanquish urban rivals. With dominance comes the attention of serious, ruthless gangsters higher up the food chain, especially for their leader “The Bull” who gained his nickname after a stint in […]
Continue readingRare Beasts
Mandy (Billie Piper) is a mess. A single mum to a young son, she’s constantly conflicted about her ultra-competitive media career, clashing with her unhappy parents, and attracted to the wrong men. She’s also smart and self-aware. Acutely conscious of the demands placed on women to “have it all,” she is still weighed down by […]
Continue readingDiego Maradona
Asif Kapadia’s previous award-winning documentaries (“Senna”[2010] and “Amy”[2015]) are expertly woven, archival tapestries exploring cultural icons worthy of single name titles. His new film, however, on arguably the world’s greatest-ever footballer, needs both his first and surnames because friends and family know him as Diego, the sweet-natured, insecure street kid from Buenos Aires; and then […]
Continue readingTo Live to Sing
Acclaimed Canadian-Chinese director Johnny Ma attentively and affectionately portrays the world of a Sichuan Opera troupe faced with the demolition of their building and the decline of their livelihood. China, like many societies, is undergoing a sea change. The drama combines gritty social realism with surrealism as it asks whether there is a place for […]
Continue readingMalcolm X
“Malcolm X” is Spike Lee’s epic biopic of one of the most remarkable figures in American 20th-century history. At its heart, an incredible performance by Denzel Washington who portrays three personalities in one body, Malcolm Little, Malcolm X, and El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. The story tells how Malcolm Little, a young black hoodlum in jazz age […]
Continue readingLes Misérables
Inspired by the incendiary 2005 French riots, “Les Misérables” follows three members of an anti-crime brigade who must navigate roiling gang tensions. Though the title echoes Victor Hugo’s work, this is not yet another adaptation of Gavroche’s woes. The connection is instead the location – Montfermeil, famous as the location of Thenardiers’ inn in Hugo’s […]
Continue readingAnd We Go Green
Formula E, the ground-breaking electric car racing series, has grown from upstart championship to the world’s fastest growing sport in 4 short years. Through its pulsating and unpredictable racing spectacle featuring the most skillful drivers and most advanced car manufacturers, Formula E is exciting millions about the potential of electric performance in order to combat […]
Continue readingLeap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist
“The Exorcist” (1973) is one of the most critically and commercially successful – and analyzed – horror films of all time, a still-terrifying tale of a teenage child possessed by an ancient evil demon. Following “78/52: Hitchcock’s Shower Scene” (2017), a feature-length documentary on the iconic “Psycho” (1960) murder sequence, Alexandre O. Philippe puts “The […]
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