Two documentaries about the performing arts: prodigious pianists and a spectacular failure of capitalism.
Author: Josh
SIFF 2023: Adoptees find their places in Egghead & Twinkie and The Quiet Migration
Two stories of adoptees finding their places, screening as part of the Seattle International Film Festival.
SIFF 2023: Recommendations for the rest of the Festival
Picks for the second half of the Seattle International Film Festival, plus a rundown of the guests who will be in town to support their films.
SIFF 2023: teen angst with ANU and I Like Movies
Short reviews of SIFF films, both about kids having a tough time.
SIFF 2023: Meaningful vacations in The Eight Mountains and Chile ’76
Reviews from the Seattle International Film Festival.
In Showing Up, art isn’t easy, but it’s not the hardest part.
In their fourth collaboration, director Kelly Reichardt and Michelle Williams reunite to bring a sensitively-rendered portrait of a working artist to the screen. Cinema is typically more interested in depictions of budding geniuses, dramatically troubled, foolishly unrecognized who go on to break history with blockbuster shows, but that’s never been Reichardt’s territory. Instead, working from a script written with frequent collaborator Jon Raymond, she centers the narrative in present-day Portland in the week leading up to a working ceramicist’s show at a neighborhood gallery show. What the film eschews in terms of fireworks are easily lifted by the rich textures that it observes.
John Wick: Chapter 4 finds John Wick back on his John Wickiest business (with a vengeance, again)
One might worry that so many postponements portend disappointment, but set those trepidations aside. Like their dark hero, director Chad Stahelski and his indefatigable star Keanu Reeves are incredibly good at what they do: conducting symphonies of stylized violence and making it look so awesome that the near three-hour run time flies by.
One Fine Morning finds the profound in pedestrian rhythms of life
One Fine Morning witnesses a key disappearance play out in the the grinding rhythms of real life.
Michael B. Jordan gets back into the ring with Creed III
The only bad part about heading into a new installation of the reliably entertaining Creed movie franchise is the grim realization that you’re about to watch some big dudes mess up Michael B. Jordan. It’s the cost of doing business in a boxing drama, but he has such a nice mug it’s a shame to see it smashed up. Stepping behind the camera to take over the series from Ryan Coogler, though, Jordan gives himself more of a break from the pummeling of the ring while giving his audience another compelling chapter in a big-hearted boxing saga.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania dutifully ushers in a new villain for Marvel’s next phase
I’d found myself pretty gloomy about the state of Marvel over the recent muddle of Phase Four, particularly with the soggy storytelling of Thor, Doctor Strange, and even Wakanda Forever. The latest Ant-Man installation makes small gestures toward levity and a modest leap toward introducing the Next Big Threat for earth’s mightiest heroes to assemble around.