Perhaps the most amazing thing about Asteroid City is that it actually exists. For the bean counters who fund the movies, eccentricity and experimentation are rarely inspiring motivators to open wallets, as evidenced by the Sisyphean career of Terry Gilliam. But somehow, even though his projects have by no means been consistently successful, Wes Anderson has managed to crack … [Read more...]
‘The Post’: Poignant, powerful and timely
Journalism movies have me at hello, especially the period pieces. The staccato clack of typewriter keys, the clangor of printing presses, the smoky newsrooms, the barking declarations of crusty editors with their feet on their desks and their ties askew. From His Girl Friday to Zodiac, Park Row to All the President’s Men, show me a shoe-leather reporter on a hot deadline, and … [Read more...]
‘Sully’ hymns the hero of the Hudson landing
One definition of a good director is his ability to wrench blood, sweat and tears from scenarios that should be free of suspense. Every American knows about Captain Chesley Sullenberger’s 2009 “Miracle on the Hudson,” but this cinematic disadvantage makes its dramatic re-enactment, in Clint Eastwood’s Sully, no less palpable. It’s a nerve-rattling, heart-in-throat depiction of … [Read more...]
The View From Home 81: British New Wave, Hanks abroad, a towering dystopia, and Preminger
A Taste of Honey: One unwed mother begets another in Tony Richardson’s British New Wave classic, but A Taste of Honey (Criterion, $27.99 Blu-ray, $29.95 DVD) is more than a social-problem film. It is, at various times, a pungent comedy, a touching romance, a shattering indictment of postwar malaise and, above, all, a meditation on motherhood’s failings. If London was just … [Read more...]