Before, Now & Then—a beautifully complex, richly elegant melodrama from Indonesian writer-director Kamila Andini—is set against a backdrop of the political violence of the country in the 1960s, when anywhere from a half million to three million citizens were killed in the upheaval that led to the installation of President Suharto’s despotic three-decade rule. And […]
If someone were given a sizable bankroll to plan out a romantic weekend getaway, a beachside vacation rental in Malibu ought to do the trick. That’s what Paul, played by Hayes MacArthur, typically a comedy actor, is banking on in A Love Like This. He’s the first to arrive at this lavish home, lugging in […]
The American New Hollywood generation is an incomplete puzzle without one of its more inspiring giants, director Robert Altman. Instead of limiting his early career with a quiet run of experimental films, Altman swung for the fences. Across his 13-film run in the 1970s alone, he redefined movie genres including war, musicals, and westerns. These unconventional […]
Stepping into 2026, it is remarkable to examine how many films in this day and age “go meta,” so to speak. Being self-referential is often seen as a reward for prior knowledge placed for those apparently savvy and educated viewers. Audiences want to feel smart and in on the joke, and that plays well in […]
For a long time now, celebrated South Korean master Park Chan-Wook has found extensive renown for his tales of vengeance. The earliest stretch of his career—ranging from the early ’90s to most of the 2000s—is marked with various stories of those scorned by violence, and wish nothing but to return that violence onto their oppressors. […]
The illustrator and graphic novelist Adrian Tomine’s work is both ideal for adaptation and somewhat counter-intuitively resistant to it, as evidenced by a pair of very different movies inspired by his work, 2021’s Paris, 13th District and 2023’s Shortcomings. The former is an ensemble piece from Jacques Audiard, sometimes loosely inspired by a trilogy of […]
On the surface, Ella McCay presents a title character in a politically-flavored comedy that is—at least for one side of the American political aisle—very easy and inspiring to root for. Played by the fast-emerging French-British actress Emma Mackey of Emma and Death on the Nile, she’s the fiercely progressive woman who has ascended to the position […]
Elizabeth Lo’s Mistress Dispeller had its world premiere at the 2024 Venice International Film Festival and, a year later, the film is making the theatrical rounds. One could say, though, that the story of the documentary started about ten years ago, when the profession of “mistress dispeller” began to crop up in China. This relatively […]
The clandestine connoisseurs at the center of Best Director Oscar winner Steven Soderbergh’s exquisitely secretive Black Bag are all professional liars of the highest order. Working as spies, analysts, and officers for British intelligence, they bend truths and wills to their whims. They are master manipulators, much like Soderbergh himself, who’s pulled more cinematic wool […]
1999’s Go is a fast-paced, action-comedy that I’ve returned to dozens of times over the past 25 years. Only recently have I begun to treat it as the Christmas film that it is. Not only does it have the setting going for it, but it’s about found families, the kind of thing a lot of […]
This happens. This is something that happens. —Stanley Spector It’s been 25 years since Magnolia premiered in theaters, and I haven’t gone a year without thinking about it. Quite frankly, I do a lot of thinking nowadays. Getting older means a lot of things, and one of the big ones—the biggest for me—is losing those […]
Despite the sexiness of its sports car appeal and an esteemed auteur behind the lens, Michael Mann’s Ferrari flew mostly under the radar when it was released last winter, tallying lackluster box office receipts ($43.3 million) that didn’t even recoup half the budget ($95 million). Even the discourse was fairly tepid. There was some initial […]
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