Sadly, the phrase “BEING CHARLIE is Rob Reiner’s best film in years” doesn’t mean nearly as much as it once would have. After a decade where he could do no wrong, he has, incredibly enough, been in the Hollywood wilderness for twenty years now, churning out flops like The Story of Us, Alex and […]
CAT PERSON: It seems to be necessary to establish one’s bona fides (or lack thereof) before commenting on Susanna Fogel’s Cat Person, so I’ll note that I’ve never read Kristen Roupenian’s celebrated New Yorker short story. I’m given to understand, however, that the entire third act of Michelle Ashford’s adaptation is an add-on, which […]
The Sundance programmers, one has to assume, are big fans of TV’s Happy Endings. Casey Wilson is part of that show’s wonderful ensemble, and one of its most reliably hilarious members. The news that she was co-writing (with co-star June Diane Raphael) her own comedy vehicle must have seemed promising. Yet at some point […]
These haven’t been glory days for the Toronto Film Festival. The WGA/SAG strikes dampened the vibe, of course–of the 27 films I saw at TIFF, only 4 screenings featured appearances from the cast. Beyond that, for whatever reasons, TIFF also wasn’t favored by the studios with some of the major releases that instead opted […]
KNIVES OUT (Lionsgate – November 27): Rian Johnson’s delectable reinvention of the old-fashioned puzzle whodunnit wears its convoluted plotting on its sleeve, weaving and circling about so that when you think you know what’s going on, he can bang his trap shut. Johnson isn’t shy about his influences here. The murder victim, Harlan Thrombrey […]
Damien Chazelle’s powerhouse WHIPLASH is about the pursuit of not just excellence, but perfection, and on its own deliberately limited terms it doesn’t land far from that mark. Whiplash won both the Grand Jury and the Audience prizes at this year’s Sundance Film Festival (only the 5th time that’s happened), and for all intents […]
DAMSEL (no distrib): A hipster representation of comedy rather than anything comic itself. Written and directed by David and Nathan Zellner, whose previous work includes the similarly film festival-targeted Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter (they also appear in the film, David in a leading role), Damsel initially presents itself as the tall tale of Samuel […]
SOMETIMES I THINK ABOUT DYING: The Office, for depressives. Fran (Daisy Ridley) is the most anonymous member of a nondescript shipping department in a small Oregon town, wrapped in so many layers of emotional insulation that she can’t make the smallest of small talk and flees from any interaction with her officemates. When Robert […]