My first reaction to Yorgos Lanthimos’s new absurdist black comedy anthology was that it was nice to see him getting weird again.
Month: June 2024
Copa 71, or how to memory hole an entire World Cup for 50 years
There’s something remarkable about the opening scene of Copa 71. Brandi Chastain, hero of the winning American team of the 1991 Women’s World Cup, is given a tablet and shown footage of the 1971 Copa tournament, a massive women’s soccer competition in Mexico City two decades earlier than the first official FIFA Women’s World Cup. She had no idea it even existed. I suspect many other diehard women’s sports fans didn’t either (I certainly didn’t).
Jeff Nichols revisits a rough and tumble motorcycle club in The Bikeriders
Taking inspiration from Danny Lyon’s iconic book of photography The Bikeriders, director Jeff Nichols uses his admiration for the images of mid-century motorcyclists as the basis for a fictionalized account of a Chicago-based motorcycle club.
June Squibb is an unlikely action star in Thelma
This caper starring June Squibb as a 93-year-old granny on a Cruise-inspired impossible mission to avenge her honor after being phone scammed & Fred Hechinger as underemployed Grandson of the Year might be the Most Sundance Movie of the fest: impeccably made, note-perfect, heartwarming comedy.
SIFF-favorite Ghostlight returns for an encore performance
Directors Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson leverage the chemistry of a real-life family in crafting a drama about a working-class Chicago-area household. When we first meet the family in a principal’s office as they’re still reeling from the aftershocks of an unspecified trauma and the mounting stress of a looming lawsuit.
Netflix’s Ultraman: Rising pulls classic Japanese sci-fi and your heartstrings
Kenji goes out on his first mission as the Ultra hero and finds himself stuck with Emi, a pint-sized Kaiju. He’s convinced by his estranged father that he has to keep Emi safe and raise her as his own.
Inside Out 2 isn’t just for teens
Inside Out 2 finds us once again in the head of Riley, the young girl we grew with and cried for in Inside Out. This time, she’s just just a girl, she’s hit puberty and with it a whole host of new emotions. Riley hasn’t just grown up, she’s a star hockey player with two best friends and fantastic grades… so she’s on top of the world. Overnight, her emotional buddies (Joy, Anger, Disgust, Sadness and Fear) find their world crashing around them as “construction” is doing a complete overhaul of her emotional stability.