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The Australian-born novelist and essayist Lily Brett is the daughter of Holocaust survivors and writes frequently on that topic and condition. Her 2001 novel Too Many Men is about a father and daughter who travel to Poland to explore the father’s tragic past. One of the book’s many features is a series of conversations the […]

When it premiered at Tribeca last year, David Duchovny’s “Reverse the Curse” was titled “Bucky F*cking Dent,” which is a title that would have at least given this remarkably lifeless film a bit of personality. It’s also the title of the book, also by Duchovny, on which this maudlin film is based. It’s a story

Instead of a feature-length movie, “The Grab,” a 106-minute documentary about shady land deals and global food insecurity, often resembles an overstuffed pilot for an over-ambitious new series. The movie’s creators start by making specific connections and anecdotes, mostly focusing on the sale and seizure of land in Zambia and other African countries. Then, they

In 1991, country superstar Garth Brooks crooned, “Well, it’s bulls and blood/It’s the dust and mud/It’s the roar of a Sunday crowd/It’s the white in the knuckles/The gold in the buckle/He’ll win the next go-’round.” The lyrics, about the ups and downs of a man who dedicates everything to the rodeo lifestyle, rattled around in

Julia Louis-Dreyfus gives a performance of breathtaking vulnerability as the mother of a dying teenager in “Tuesday,” a film that tells the story of the most shattering loss of all without melodrama or a score filled with syrupy strings. Writer/director Daina Oniunas-Pusic makes the characters’ pain real through the most improbable of metaphors. We have

“Never give in to hope.” Lucy (Jennifer Connelly) writes these words on the white board while attending a “semi-silent retreat”. The retreat’s atmosphere is tense, and Lucy is uptight and irritated, all of which defeats the whole purpose of a retreat. Judging from the motivational tapes she listens to in the car, and the fact

Alicia Vikander is the titular “Firebrand,” starring as Katherine Parr, the sixth and final wife of Henry VIII. But the movie that reframes her legacy as a free-thinking and vengeful radical is only fitfully fiery itself. Jude Law actually steals the show as the corpulent and capricious king. Every time he’s on screen, director Karim

In Amanda Nell Eu’s coming-of-age tale, “Tiger Stripes,” a young girl in Malaysia undergoes the mortifying experience of puberty, but with a twist. Not only is she trying her parents’ and teachers’ patience, showing off her new bra strap to classmates at her all-girls school, and getting her period, but she’s also developing an inexplicable

“Cora Bora,” written by Rhianon Jones and directed by Hannah Pearl Utt, is designed to showcase Stalter’s signature brand of absurd irony. The comedian broke out when videos she posted on social media during quarantine in 2020 went viral, leading to supporting roles on shows like “Hacks” and in indie films like “First Time Female

I have seen so many hagiographic clip reels masquerading as documentaries that I kind of just presumed that Hulu’s “Brats” would be a similar love letter to the young stars of the ‘80s, the actors and actresses who shaped pop culture in the middle of the decade in a way that’s still being felt today.