THELMA (no distrib): In recent years, we’ve seen the rise of what might uncharitably be called Old Lady Cinema, noisy comedies like the Book Club franchise and 80 For Brady that milk gags out of the spectacle of actresses of a certain age talking about (and even engaging in) sex and some light drug […]
WINNER (no distrib): Yes, this sounds familiar. Last year, HBO aired Tina Satter’s Reality, which told the story of the young jailed NSA leaker Reality Winner, and now filmmaker Susanna Fogel has taken the other half of that memorable name for her version of the tale. (The Reality title was more evocative.) Their approaches […]
LOVE LIES BLEEDING (A24 – March 8): Rose Glass has followed her brilliant horror movie Saint Maud by exchanging austerity for pulp. Love Lies Bleeding (co-written with Weronika Tofilska) is engulfed by the spirit of overripeness, to the point where it embraces the garish and even tbe flat-out ludicrous. The film doesn’t entirely work, […]
IT’S WHAT’S INSIDE (Netflix – TBD): The biggest sale of the festival as of this writing–a $17M paycheck from Netflix–was its most dynamite entertainment. Greg Jardin’s feature writing/directing debut feels like Bodies Bodies Bodies was given an injection of The Last of Sheila‘s brains. Note: Jardin has asked that his central plot mechanism not be spoiled, which […]
THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MAGICAL NEGROES (Focus/Universal – March 15): The title of Kobi Libii’s first feature refers to the unfortunately well-established movie trope where a noble Black character exists only as a catalyst to make the white protagonist a better person. (Think of everything from Driving Miss Daisy to The Green Mile, The Legend of Bagger Vance to Green […]