As a horror movie setting, a groty carnival on the beaches of Santa Cruz in 1986 is a ready-made place to start. And so begins Us, Jordan Peele’s gripping new creep show. A proud father has just won his curious little girl, Adelaide Wilson (Madison Curry), a prize at one of the midway games. She picks a Michael Jackson “Thriller” T-shirt (speaking of scary things), many … [Read more...]
Writer T Kira Madden: Leaving Boca, opening doors for ‘Fatherless Girls’
The tattoos dotting T Kira Madden’s arms may not symbolize everything you need to know about her, but they unlock a number of doors. They include likenesses of the Hawaiian islands, her ancestral homeland; the key to her father’s apartment in New York City; a top hat, tipped in reference to her passion for stage magic; and a hot air balloon, which she and her parents … [Read more...]
‘The Competition’: The rocky road to finding the next Truffaut
The formula of the competition documentary is a sturdy and familiar one. Whether the subject is a spelling bee, a dance tournament or a science fair, the format is pretty much identical: We observe a handful of striving young competitors through the process, getting to know, and hopefully love, each one personally. If that means dozens of equally interesting biographies are … [Read more...]
Reading Pauline: Documentary explores power of a major film critic
For those of us still pulling off the magic act of being paid (meagerly, of course) to scribble about movies in the 21st century, the presence of a documentary about one of our own, especially a figure as significant and divisive as Pauline Kael, proved too tantalizing to resist. Thus, of all the important films to enjoy their South Florida debuts at the Miami International … [Read more...]
Harrowing ‘Arctic’ strands its audience, too
Arctic, the directorial debut from YouTube personality Joe Penna, is nothing if not an exercise in economy. We don’t need to know what we don’t need to know. We first see the protagonist, played by Mads Mikkelsen, shoveling snow, alone, an infinite abyss of powder sprawling in all directions. When he’s done, an overhead shot reveals the site-specific art he’s just created: … [Read more...]
‘Last Resort’ an engrossing tale of a lost Miami Beach
Among the countless quotable lines from Cocaine Cowboys, director Billy Corben’s influential documentary about the Miami Drug War, is this summary of the population of prewar Miami Beach, from one blunt observer: It consisted of “a lot of old people just sitting on rocking chairs waiting to die.” Corben didn’t linger on the porch sitters much. He cut to the chase, which is … [Read more...]
Prestige layout suffocates authenticity of ‘Never Look Away’
Never Look Away, the sweeping new Oscar bait from Germany’s Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, is never better than when it watches paint dry. Or, rather, when it watches its central character, modern artist Kurt Barnert (Tom Schilling), watch paint dry. I’m referring specifically to a segment near the home stretch of this 188-minute sprawl when, after years of replicating … [Read more...]
Hard-to-classify ‘Image Book’ a rigorous challenge from Godard
Just a few weeks ago on this site, I reviewed Guy Maddin’s ludic film-history pastiche The Green Fog. In it, I referenced one of the movie’s more rigorous forbears: Histoire(s) du Cinema, Jean-Luc Godard’s eight-part philosophical treatise, completed over a 10-year period and collaged entirely from upcycled images. This must be a boomtime for film essays composed of … [Read more...]
‘Cold War’ a bleak, brilliant torch song of addictive love
Cold War is one of those black-and-white films that you cannot imagine in color, so austere is the world the characters inhabit. It begins in the Polish countryside in 1949, a desolate landscape of postwar rubble. But even when the setting changes years later, to a go-go Paris of jazz clubs, lavish soirées and bartop dancing, the stark photography still seems appropriate. … [Read more...]
Shymalan holds ‘Glass’ up to his devotees, but few others
How many times can an artist deconstruct his craft and still surprise us? How often can a magician reveal his illusions and still leave us flummoxed? This is the challenge facing M. Night Shyamalan, Hollywood’s most esoteric trickster, as he burrows ever deeper into the cocoon of his cinematic universe, not so much playing to mainstream audiences as to film theorists, comic … [Read more...]