“I wish I could feel as others do, but it is not possible,” says a teenage Emily Dickinson. She’s standing alone in front of the headmistress of the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, in the opening scene of Terence Davis’ haunting A Quiet Passion. The rest of her classmates have, at the headmistress’ request, divided into two camps: Those ready to be good Christians and be saved … [Read more...]
Misguided direction makes ‘The Dinner’ none too edible
The structure of Oren Moverman’s The Dinner is, appropriately enough, prandial. It begins, roughly, with an aperitif, and concludes shortly after a digestif at an uber-luxurious prix fixe restaurant, the sort of dimly lit culinary castle where a wine is selected for each course, where the waiters explain the provenance of the garnish, and where the bill costs as much as an … [Read more...]
‘Norman’: A hollow man gets an empty character study
Norman Oppenheimer, Richard Gere’s title character in writer-director Joseph Cedar’s new movie, is a walking LinkedIn, if LinkedIn had defective code. Norman lives to connect people. Self-servingly curious, he’s a relentless interrogator of everyone he meets — he’s the mosquito that won’t leave you alone — until his marks end up accepting his card, or a bribe, or a dinner … [Read more...]
Visual poetry gives ‘Lost City of Z’ its epic passport
Depending on whom you ask, director James Gray (We Own the Night, The Immigrant) is either his generation’s Kubrick — a dogged, uncompromising auteur of narcotized mood pieces — or a ponderous, inert storyteller with an elegant camera eye. Whatever your opinion of the polarizing filmmaker, he’s an unlikely choice for The Lost City of Z (pronounced “zed”), an adaptation of … [Read more...]
Kore-eda’s ‘After the Storm’ a deft look at a man adrift
Long championed as his generation’s Yasujiro Ozu, Japan’s Hirokazu Kore-eda (Still Walking, Like Father Like Son) makes grown-up films about flawed families, often centering on how we deal with death and other life changes. He’s not an Ozu mimic — he doesn’t share the late master’s formal rigor — but both directors were/are wise beyond their years. They’re both particularly … [Read more...]
‘Zookeeper’s Wife’: Heroism amid the animals in uniforms
World War II movies never went away, but they’re especially en vogue now. This young year has already welcomed at least three on the art-house circuit — Land of Mine, Fanny’s Journey, Alone in Berlin — while 2016 saw its share of Oscar successes (Hacksaw Ridge), blockbuster failures (Allied) and projects in between (Anthropoid), to say nothing of the masterly, divisive 2015 … [Read more...]
‘Personal Shopper’: An unsettling search for (a) spirit
Since the dawn of cinema, movies have been trying to visualize and elucidate the paranormal: This is a vampire, a demon, a ghost, a loved one visiting from the Other Side. This is how they act, this is what they want and — most importantly for audiences seeking closure — this is how they can be defeated/assuaged/comforted. Olivier Assayas’ polarizing Cannes sensation … [Read more...]
Boca Raton debuts its own Jewish film festival, and it’s already a hit
There is good news and bad news for fans of Jewish-themed films. The good news: There is a new film festival in the county, the Boca Raton Jewish Film Festival, which opens today, runs for eight days and shows 27 movies from around the world. The bad news: All seats for all screenings are already sold, going to patrons, sponsors and passholders before single tickets ever had … [Read more...]
‘Women’s Balcony’ too pedestrian to bring its message home
The only bona fide action scene in The Women’s Balcony occurs within in the first 10 minutes. It’s set during an orthodox bar mitzvah in Jerusalem, but the trappings will seem familiar to anyone who’s attended one of these ceremonies in Aventura or Brooklyn or anywhere else: the gregarious extended families, the long-winded sermons, the ancient rabbi, the nerve-rattled … [Read more...]
Israeli basketball’s David-and-Goliath moment recounted in ‘On the Map’
Israeli filmmaker Dani Menkin was 7 years old when his country’s miracle Maccabi Tel Aviv team overcame its underdog status to win the European Cup basketball championship. But like that team, and much of the nation, he remembers it like it was yesterday. “I was a small kid when it happened, but nobody who was there could forget that day. It was one moment that changed so … [Read more...]