The opening scene of East of the Mountains is not something I will ever be able to forget. Ben Givens, a retired heart surgeon and widower of a year, is in his Seattle home, holding a rifle (a family heirloom, we learn later), determined to end his life.
Author: Chris Burlingame
SIFF 2021: It’s baaaaacccckkkk!
Y’all ready for this? I can hardly believe it, but it’s finally here. After missing all of 2020, the Seattle International Film …
Godzilla vs. Kong is big, dumb, and 100% unnecessary. It also rules.
Godzilla vs. Kong (2021 | USA | 113 minutes | Adam Wingard) This is a snippet of a conversation I had with …
The Affair is a visually appealing movie with a maudlin plot
In pretty much all regards, The Affair is a gorgeous movie to watch. The cinematography is bold and luscious, the cast (without exception) is extremely photogenic, the costume design is fantastic, and there’s even some pretty remarkable architecture. It’s too bad it’s all for naught in this tepid, pre-war drama.
Mazel Tov! The Seattle Jewish Film Festival kicks off tonight
Tonight, Seattle’s Jewish Film Festival begins tonight with a total of nineteen feature films from throughout the world through March 18. It’s the twenty-sixth festival, and it’ll be entirely virtual.
Eddie Huang’s Boogie is an impressive, personal debut
Boogie is a coming-of-age story that revolves around Alfred Chin, an Asian, teenage basketball prodigy in New York who goes by “Boogie” (and who is not DeMarcus Cousins). Taylor Takahashi stars, and he’s very good at conveying Boogie’s torment. Boogie knows he can play, and thinks he’s got a good chance for a scholarship at a top university (Georgetown and St. John’s are options he has as a walk-on) but he can also be a bit hot headed. For his senior year, Boogie transfers to City Prep high school to increase his profile, but he has several altercations with his coach, including telling him that his teammates are “hot trash.”
Fake Famous peers through the looking glass of influencer culture, and that looking glass is actually a toilet seat
Fake Famous (2021 | USA | 86 minutes | Nick Bilton) New York Times and Vanity Fair tech reporter Nick Bilton has …
The Little Things is as memorable as its title
The Little Things (2021 | USA | 127 minutes | John Lee Hancock) Leading up to its simultaneous debut in some movie …
Promising Young Woman is 2021’s most talked-about movie, but the results are mixed
Promising Young Woman (2020 | USA | 113 minutes | Emerald Fennell) The opening scene of Promising Young Woman, the new, debut …
You can visit “God’s Waiting Room” in Some Kind of Heaven
Some Kind of Heaven (2020 | USA | 83 minutes | Lance Oppenheim) Before writing about the new movie Some Kind of …