Leonor had a rich and lustrous career creating films that everyone loved; she brought joy to the masses and herself. Now as an older woman, her career long behind her, she is directionless, forgetful and desperate to be back in that limelight. Reigniting her passions, she begins reworking an old script and while taking a break is hit in the head by a rogue television set from above sending her tumbling into her own mind where her script becomes reality. This is no joyful reunion of cast and creator, most of her work involved gritty backdrops, guns and deadly scuffles. As she tries to navigate this unexpected journey and find safety in a familiar but dangerous world, back on Earth her son Rudy attempts to revive her from her “conscious sleep” as the doctor puts it.
Month: November 2022
Steven Spielberg takes us behind the camera with The Fabelmans
Deploying all of the tricks in his bag to conjure nostalgia and convey awe, upstart auteur Stevie Spielberg has at long last made his very own Licorice Pizza. I kid, but loosely fictionalized filmmaker memoirs are really in the air, aren’t they?
Hit the road with Timmy and Taylor for cannibal love story Bones and All
Luca Guadagnino has never shied away from heightened depictions of the pleasures or torments of the flesh. With his adaptation of Bones and All he confronts an entirely different sort of misunderstood passion and hunger in the form of a cannibal love story.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is less mystery and more scrumptious storytelling
A complete departure from the first film in storyline, yet the familiar feel of silliness, tension, and quizzical murder mystery, Glass Onion has no trouble keeping you captivated from beginning to end. A cast of characters, witty, untamed and ridiculous, open the film amidst the pandemic lockdown, all on a group call attempting to open identical mysterious puzzle boxes each received from a mutual friend: the brash and unapologetic billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton). After a snappy discourse and several failed attempts, the boxes finally open to reveal invitations to Bron’s luxe private island for a murder mystery party.
The Wonder is a haunting reckoning of faith and reason in post-famine Ireland
As an English nurse hired to witness a possible miracle in Ireland, Florence Pugh is a steely presence in The Wonder, Sebastián Lelio’s adaptation of the Emma Donoghue novel. A spiritual detective story of sorts emerges in a remote Irish village where a young girl appears to have survived for months without eating. A council of serious men — physicians, town elders, a priest — decide that a two week observation by two nurses taking eight hour shifts is the only way to determine whether the feat is divine intervention or some sort of hoax.
She Said brings the story behind a seismic #metoo scoop to the screen
In many ways, She Said fits the mold of a classic investigative journalism thriller. Two reporters toil tirelessly against very powerful forces to nail down a story that will take down a very bad guy. Further, anyone with any awareness of the course of the last half-decade’s recognition of sexual misconduct in the workplace almost certainly knows what became of Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor’s efforts to bring the abuses of Harvey Weinstein to light in the pages of America’s newspaper of record. Knowing how something turns out, however, isn’t necessarily an obstacle to crafting a film this that revels in the process of getting the big story.
The Menu sharply satirizes the culinary world over seven sharply-constructed courses
With his prestige television background, including an Emmy for Succession, director Mark Mylod has a keen eye for the foibles of the ridiculously rich and powerful. In his feature film debut that crackles with humor and wild surprises, he applies that perspective to concoct a wild and biting commentary on the dark undercurrents of and frivolities of the high-end food world and those who patronize it.
Ana Dumitrascu is outstanding in Romania’s Academy Award submission Immaculate
No one will ever call Immaculate the “feel good movie of the year,” and that’s a good thing. This is a movie full of empathy and anchored by a remarkable performance by a great, young actress.
Black Panthers come and go, but is Wakanda Forever?
Ryan Coogler’s first Black Panther film was the first (and only) Marvel to crack the Oscar ceiling for a best picture nomination. The much-anticipated return to Wakanda reconciles with the sad reality of the real world: the 2020 death of Chadwick Boseman and Wakanda’s loss of its beloved king and protector.
Aftersun is a quietly dazzling dive into memory
A pervasive sadness lingers around the corners of Aftersun, Charlotte Wells’s deeply accomplished recollection of a father-daughter summer holiday in Turkey.