Reviews

See How They Run Fell Achingly Short of a Hit

A play within a film within a story within a farce, this whodunnit is a maze of silliness and murder. Set in London’s West End in the 50’s, Agatha Christie’s Mousetrap has just hit its 100th stage performance and a film deal is solidly in the works. It’s these actors, writers, directors and film folks that attend the post-performance party in appreciation for the milestone. Narrated in the words of the future film director Leo Köpernick (Adrien Brody) who is most hated by all guests in attendance and who also happens to be the victim, the scene is set for a murder most foul. Soon Inspector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell) and rookie Constable Stalker (Saoirse Ronan) are on the case and their investigation goes sideways, upside down, and backwards with bouts of insanity, slapstick, and confusing murder mystery shenanigans. In the end, we find ourselves at the Christie residence a la Clue as all are gathered to reveal the identity of the murderer.

Festivals Reviews

Telluride 2022: The Wonder, Bones and All

Two esteemed international directors brought stories of hunger and horror to the Telluride Film Festival in the form of a World Premiere for Sebastián Lelio’s gothic mystery The Wonder and a US premiere for Luca Guadagnino’s cannibal love story Bones and All

Festivals Reviews

A megachurch navigates a crisis in Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.

Adamma Ebo’s film about a disgraced prosperity gospel preacher (Sterling K. Brown) and the church’s stand-by-your man “First Lady” (Regina Hall) on the precipice of an Easter resurrection, it plays like satire. It has the conceits of a mockumentary, with its oblivious subjects still under the impression that they can reshape their image through force of will and the power of positive projection.

Reviews

Three Thousand Years of Longing; or, Good Luck To You, Lonely Djinn

When last we saw George Miller, it was in the sun-blasted desert of Fury Road for a breathless post-apocalyptic hyper-saturated revolutionary adventure. But aside from his forays into the Mad Max mythology, his oeuvre also includes two movies about dancing penguins, another pair about talking piglets, and a dark adult fairy tale concerning three suburban witches. So, seven years after his chaotic masterpiece, we shouldn’t be too surprised that his return to big screens is less an action spectacle than a return to the realm of storybook fables.

Festivals Reviews

Golden Space Needle winner The Territory brings indigenous activism into focus

The title of The Territory refers to a large swath of rainforest inhabited by the dwindling population of Uru-eu-wau-wau people, who first came into contact with non-Native Brazilians in 1981. Until recently, strict protections have made this land one of the few remaining bulwarks against the rampant clear-cutting that threatens to fundamentally erase the lush and biodiverse Amazon river basin.
Alex Pritz’s documentary juxtaposes life among the Uru-eu-wau-wau with those of indigent farm workers seeking to establish their own settlements within the untouched lands as a way of elevating themselves from poverty.

Festivals Reviews

Girl Picture is a dramatically beautiful story of first love and teen angst

Rönkkö and Mimmi are best friends, the kind of buddies that tell each other everything, wear each others’ clothes, and support each other through thick and thin. Throw in more than a few hormones, discovering what your body wants, and how to even talk to someone you’re interested in and you’ve got the jumbled pile we call puberty; that’s exactly where we find these two women.