Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024

The hero of "Problemista" sees the world differently. He's an aspiring toy designer named Alejandro who thinks today's toys are too fun. He proposes a toy truck with a deflating tire to teach kids they're running out of time.

Alejandro is the creation of Julio Torres, who stars, directs...

Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024

Three firm thumps into the Arrakis sand is all you need to summon a sandworm in Denis Villeneuve's "Dune: Part Two." It's almost as easy as hailing a cab or calling for the check.

The big buggers can't resist the sound, which is a little like how I feel taking in all the vibrations of...

Friday, Feb. 16, 2024

One cinematographer recently earned his third career Oscar and ASC Award nominations.

Another scored his second Academy Award nod and third ASC Award nom.

And our third DP became an Oscar nominee for the third time, and an ASC Award nominee for the fourth.

Here are insights...

Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024

It’s been an eventful Sundance Film Festival for directors Natalie Rae and Angela Patton as their Daughters earned major distinction with not only the Festival Favorite Award, voted on by event attendees, but also the Audience Award in the U.S. Documentary competition. Furthermore,...

Monday, Feb. 12, 2024

With the Kansas City Chiefs prevailing in overtime over the San Francisco 49ers to claim their second consecutive Super Bowl championship, Super Bowl LVIII on Sunday (2/11) held viewer interest throughout--which is a good thing for advertisers who paid some $7 million for a :30 time slot on CBS...

Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2024

"Why are you teaching us to be so rude?" the elderly village woman asks a Bhutanese election official in "The Monk and the Gun."

It's a question both poignant and biting, because the "teaching" this woman is resisting is something much of the outside world considers a basic human right:...

Monday, Feb. 5, 2024

Wim Wenders' "Perfect Days" is set among the crowded skyscrapers of Tokyo and the quiet urban parks that Hirayama (Kôji Yakusho) traverses daily in his job cleaning public toilets. But where the movie resides, really, is Yakusho's face.

In this gently sublime film, Hirayama steps outside...

Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024

For women of a certain age who grew up being told that if they wore the wrong thing, drank a little too much, or gave the wrong signals that they were "asking for it," it might seem like the youths of today have it good, or at least quite a bit better. Consent seems to matter. Clothing coverage...

Friday, Jan. 26, 2024

For a film about death, Lila Avilés' "Tótem" is extraordinarily lived in.

Avilés' camera roams through the festive, cluttered gathering of an extended family as they prepare for a birthday celebration that evening. Watching it all is the 7-year-old Sol (Naíma Sentíes), whose father,...

Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024

Words like "important" and "vital" are thrown around possibly a little too much in film criticism. It's not that we don't mean it — it's just that sometimes we (ok, I) can get a bit excited. And when watching and reviewing good films in real time, it's impossible to know what is yet to come....

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