Like the proverbial after-school special, the Lifetime Original Movie is an institution that is summarily dismissed by us snoots in the film-critic intelligentsia. Never mind that most of us have never actually sat through one: to tarnish a major motion picture with a comparison to the network proffering weepies and you-go-girl triumphalism is to deem it unserious and … [Read more...]
Film in 2016: The year’s 10 best
Whether it was because of the commotion over last year’s all-white Oscar nominations or simply a coincidence of the pipeline, this year’s top film crop has several entries with racial themes and likely African-American nominees in the performance categories. Here, in descending order of quality – as judged by my highly subjective opinion – are the best of 2016: … [Read more...]
‘Manchester by the Sea’: Enduring grief, finding grace
Throughout Manchester by the Sea, women fall, sometimes literally, at the feet of Casey Affleck’s brooding handyman. While on the job — albeit in the unromantic pursuit of unclogging a toilet — he overhears a client confessing her attraction to him, on the phone to a friend, through the bathroom walls. It leads to nothing more than a generous tip. At a bar, a comely female … [Read more...]
Postcard from Broadway No. 5: Two searing, powerful plays
Jeff Daniels and Michelle Williams in Blackbird. Wednesday is, of course, a matinee day, so I saw two productions today and, as it worked out, they were two highly intense, intermissionless plays, which packed a lot of gut punch in roughly 90 minutes each. The one with considerable star power was David Harrower's Blackbird, making its Broadway debut although it is … [Read more...]