Lorenz Hart is singing in the rain. Seconds later, he’s collapsed in an alley, no longer with a song in his heart, abandoned with the rest of the Broadway trash. He’ll perish from pneumonia hours later in a nearby hospital, at age 48. That’s how Richard Linklater opens his new film Blue Moon, spoilers be damned, and it neatly summarizes, in one pitiless tracking sequence, … [Read more...]
‘Strange Way of Life’: Almodóvar short is fuller than most epics
It’s easy to grumble that, since the ascension of streaming, everything is content now. Art-house films, blockbusters, documentaries, limited series, multi-season dramas, standup specials, even news broadcasts — they’re all items in a queue, presented for your enjoyment or consigned to oblivion on the caprices of an algorithm. Some of them take longer than others to finish, and … [Read more...]
Starry ‘The Truth’ too insular to make deep impact
To note that The Truth is Hirokazu Kore-eda’s starriest movie to date is to understate. While the Japanese director’s previous 13 films have been cast with actors unfamiliar to the non-cinephile masses, and often earn little more than festival and art-house exhibition, his latest has all the ingredients for broader appeal and a wide theatrical opening — something it was poised … [Read more...]
‘Juliet, Naked’ a charmer despite nods to rom-com formula
The comma separating the two words of Juliet, Naked is flush with sensual possibility, but it’s the first joke in this affable, niche-y romantic comedy. The title is more audiophilic than erotic: What’s being stripped down isn’t Juliet the person but Juliet the fictional album by a fictional singer-songwriter named Tucker Crowe. Kind of like the Beatles’ Phil Spector-less Let … [Read more...]
Faith of the father, test of our time: Schrader’s powerful ‘First Reformed’
The setting for much of Paul Schrader’s First Reformed is a white Dutch Colonial church, simple and sturdy and indistinguishable from the thousands of similar structures that punctuate America’s hills and hollers, its exurbs and suburbs. The chapel, First Reformed in upstate New York, is situated near Abundant Life, a pyrotechnic megachurch with live-streamed sermons and … [Read more...]