Powerful is the word for The Power of the Dog, a contemporary, revisionist Western that streamed on Netflix, which led the field when Academy Award nominations were announced this morning. It galloped away with 12 nominations, including best picture, director (Jane Campion), actor (Benedict Cumberbatch), supporting actors (Jesse Plemons, Kodi Smit-McPhee), supporting … [Read more...]
‘1917’: All soulless on the Western Front
How’s this for a criticism: There’s something unbearably perfect about Sam Mendes’ World War I picture 1917. On the one hand, the film — specially formatted for IMAX’s expansive 1:90:1 aspect ratio — takes great pains to reestablish moviegoing as a necessary cinematic experience, an increasingly quaint notion in the day-and-date streaming era. But it reaches for this … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Nov. 4-6
Art: The disgraceful election season of 2016 is, thankfully, almost over, and this year on the presidential level, there has been little to no discussion of actual issues. Equally thankfully, some real discussion is available on the question of African-American male life in an exhibition now on through Dec. 18 at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach. Question Bridge: … [Read more...]
‘Doctor Strange’ mesmerizes with digital wizardry, sense of fun
Note to future directors of blockbuster bombast: Gone are the days of watching metropolises simply explode or collapse from such banally familiar tropes as nuclear blasts, alien death rays or picayune fisticuffs of levitating Avengers. Doctor Strange, himself a future Avenger, and the new Marvel movie that dramatizes his origin story, have rewritten the disaster playbook, … [Read more...]