Reviews

The Death of Robin Hood insists on dismantling the idea of legend

Michael Sarnowski’s grimy new historical-adjacent thriller dares to ask audiences to consider a deeply uncomfortable question. What if Robin Hood was not, in true fact, a sexy swashbuckling animated fox? Let alone one who stole from the rich to give to the poor? Or to unite with his band of affable outlaws who communed in the forest of Sherwood to thwart the avaricious overreaches of a swishy spoiled despot king? 

Festivals Reviews

Leviticus literalizes the horror of conversion therapy

The metaphors run hot and heavy in this down under horror story about the trauma of gay awakenings. Still, small abandoned conservative towns, spooky religion, and the overwhelming potency of teenage lust remain creepily effective tools when deployed this stylishly.

Reviews

Like its hero, Tuner has perfect pitch

Amid festivals clogged with so many films with “prestige” ambitions, it’s a thrillingly welcome jolt when a really fun movie executes on a clever concept and is impeccably entertaining from top to bottom. And that was exactly the case when the good word of Tuner started rippling through queues at Telluride before putting on the full charm offensive in Toronto a week later. Making the transition from pulse-pounding documentary filmmaking to small-stakes crime romance, Daniel Roher does exactly that with a film that just moves from the jump and never lets up until the closing credits.

Reviews

The Mandalorian and Grogu, or “This Is not The Way”.

A long time ago, on a streaming service too not far away from your couch, Disney+ brought live-action episodic Star Wars content onto your television. The Mandalorian was initially a simple Space Western about a bounty hunter named Din Djarin roaming the galaxy taking prisoners for cash in the topsy-turvy aftermath of reconstruction that occurred after the Rebels blew up the Death Star (the second one), killed the Evil Emperor (the first time), and everyone waking up with a Yub Nub dance hangover to piece together a New Republic. Now, after several seasons of increasingly complicated lore involving cults, factions, conspiracies, and space swords, the pair have made the leap from streaming to the big screen, but unfortunately it’s hard to call the result a movie.