Although Vadim Perelman’s “Persian Lessons” is credited as an adaptation of the short story Erfindung Einer Sprache by Wolfgang Kohlhaase, the film begins with titles that read “Inspired by true events,” a nod to the film’s Holocaust setting. Though millions of Jewish people were imprisoned and killed in concentration camps during this time, this misguided […]
A small-town period piece set between World War I and the mid-1930s, “Scarlet” is a French fable by an Italian director. Although its style couldn’t be more different, its conception evokes Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch,” which was less a portrait of any era’s “real France” than a world-traveling cinephile’s love letter to French movies
Ocean waves crash in slow motion. Solar panels sprawl as far as the eye can see. A port worker stacking multicolored shipping containers. A little boy staring blankly at a screen. These striking images and so many more comprise the poetic documentary “Users.” The latest from Natalia Almada, which earned her the documentary directing award
Although it’s being sold as a LeBron James biopic, “Shooting Stars” ends before James has even begun his records-shattering career as an NBA player. Nearly all of its two-hour running time focuses on the relationships between young James (played by acting newcomer Mookie Cook, a small forward for Compass Prep in Jefferson, Oregon); his three
The bittersweet Korean drama “Aloners” works best when it’s a character study about an isolated thirtysomething’s behavior instead of whatever her creators think should be done about it. Call center ace Jina (Gong Seung-Yeon) doesn’t get completely pigeonholed by her age or stereotypically millennial intolerances until her story wraps up, at which point her problems
The fawning docuseries “Arnold” repackages Arnold Schwarzenegger’s already well-spun and streamlined biography. In three hour-long episodes devoted to his three major careers (bodybuilder, movie actor, and politician), Schwarzenegger provides negligible on-camera and voiceover-narrated commentary for movie clips, old and new talking head interviews, and self-congratulatory pep-talk commentary about his life, whose selectively remembered setbacks all
One doesn’t so deeply insist on calling themselves “the luckiest guy in the world” as NBA superstar and sportscaster Bill Walton does without facing bad luck. As we learn from this jolly Steve James docuseries, the towering and ebullient Walton is known for hyperbole, for liberally using the word “fantastic.” But in the humble Hall
Rob Savage has proven twice that he can aim higher than The Boogeyman an emotionally numbing horror movie and counter-intuitive self-challenge to make PG-13 horror scary. The filmmaker’s previous ventures “Host”, about a haunted Zoom seance, and Dashcam, about a rapping anti-vaxxer’s live-streamed descent into hell led with innovation and provocation. They’re as current as
My esteemed colleague Christy Lemire opened her review of “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” with a quote from her nine-year-old asking if he could see it again, so I think there’s some synergy in quoting my nine-year-old to open this one: “That might be the best movie I’ve ever seen”. “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” explodes onto
When do you know a relationship is real? Is it when you exchange glances that last a little too long so you can stare into each other’s eyes? Is it when you can’t stop talking to each other? Is it when you two do something together that feels more special than usual? Or is it
