MISS AMERICANA (Netflix – January 31): There are certainly areas of Taylor Swift’s life that are carefully elided in MISS AMERICANA (her actor boyfriend’s face and name are absent, for example, and there’s no mention of Cats), and Lana Wilson’s documentary culminates in an inspirational push that is very much on-message with Swift’s latest […]
There’s a tendency to compare any slow-moving, beautifully-photographed drama with an abundance of natural imagery to the films of Terence Malick, but that’s unfair to the very particular surreal spirituality Malick brings even to his more insufferable projects. In the case of AIN’T THEM BODIES SAINTS, the more apt comparison is probably to Robert […]
Due to our upcoming Sundance Film Festival coverage, ratings posts for the remainder of the week are likely to consist largely of charts without text. In addition, we may not be able to respond promptly to reader Comments requests for extra ratings. (On the other hand, Sundance reviews!)
Joe Swanberg, the director, writer and co-star of HAPPY CHRISTMAS, which premiered at Sundance earlier this week, makes Woody Allen look lazy. He’s had something like a dozen features to his credit since the start of the decade, and that doesn’t include his shorts and contributions to compilations like V/H/S, to say nothing of the projects […]
Click on SHOWBUZZDAILY‘s reviews from this year’s Sundance Film Festival, in alphabetical order: 2 DAYS IN NEW YORK (Magnolia) BACHELORETTE (No Distrib) BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD (Fox Searchlight) CELESTE AND JESSE FOREVER (Sony Pictures Classics) COMPLIANCE (Magnolia) FILLY BROWN (No Distrib) THE FIRST TIME (No Distrib) FOR A GOOD TIME, CALL… (Focus) […]
PAST LIVES (A24): The playwright Celine Song makes an impressive feature writing/directing debut with the lovely, eloquent Past Lives. The film is sort of the opposite of Sliding Doors and all of the multiversal entertainment we’re showered with these days. Rather than allowing Nora (Greta Lee), Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) and Arthur (John Magaro) […]
SERGIO (Netflix – April 17): Greg Barker’s film has an unusual pedigree. Barker, up to this point a documentarian, directed a nonfiction version of the same story (and with the same title) in 2009, but decided that he wanted to explore the life of UN diplomat Sergio Vieira de Mello further in a way […]
A couple of Sundances ago, the actress/writer/producer Brit Marling was a festival darling, with two acclaimed pictures unveiled the same week. In the end, while both Another Earth and Sound of My Voice received distribution, neither found much of a mainstream audience. (Marling’s also established an acting career that included a very good turn in last year’s Arbitrage.) […]