With his last two films being the perfectly adequate Ready Player One and the wholly unnecessary The Post, I had forgotten how remarkable of a filmmaker Steven Spielberg can be when he’s working on the right project. Remaking a movie musical from fifty years ago that is as close to perfect as a non-Bob Fosse musical can be might seem daunting in a lesser filmmaker’s hands, but nearly everything in West Side Story felt like it hit exactly as it should. Spielberg’s version of this legendary film doesn’t so much surpass the original, a near impossibility, but runs parallel and that pays tribute to and complements its source marvelously.
End of Us exudes a charming nostalgia none of us ever wanted
Leah and Nick are at the end of their rope. Nick is a starving actor relying on the steady income and stability that Leah adds to his life. She’s just about ready to cut the cord on him and the relationship when the pandemic hits and they’re literally stuck with each other. Even in the early days of COVID, the fear and intensity of the moment didn’t seem to distract from the frustration of being with someone they couldn’t stand and we’re taken along for the ride. They traverse the murky waters of isolation and uncertainty in a bubble of their own drama where both of them make questionable decisions, but seem to find a way to accept the humanity in one another.
A film about finding yourself, Wolf will leave you howling in both pain and laughter
The next progression in the unintentional trilogy of films that have a single word title of an animal, with Pig and Lamb preceding it, Wolf is an uncomfortably strange look at a young man who thinks he is the four-legged predator.
Despite a great performance from Riz Ahmed, Encounter never arrives at a meaningful destination
Defined by missed potential, Encounter sees Riz Ahmed giving a committed central performance that is let down by the meandering narrative of the rest of the film around him.
In The Power of The Dog Jane Campion finds something new in the Old West
Adapted from Thomas Savage’s novel of the same title, Jane Campion’s latest film is a simmering exploration of cruelty, duty, and revenge. Amid conventions of the Western genre, she nevertheless finds surprising ways to uncover fresh ideas in classic archetypes of masculinity. Filmed against a stunning New Zealand landscape that stands in for 1900s Montana, the intimately personal story showcases Campion’s remarkable grasp of capturing both the grand sweep of natural beauty as well as a keen eye for the insightful details of places and personalities.
Julia brings the amazing life of TV’s first celebrity chef into view
Julia Child might have been one of the most unlikely TV stars. At 6’3”, she would have been tall enough to play center in the WNBA (the tallest player on the Atlanta Dream in 2021 was 6’4”), she began her TV career at 51 and she wasn’t exactly the most telegenic presence. But she was a TV star and she was the world’s first TV food personality, and she was amazing. She’s also the subject of a great new documentary called Julia.
C’mon C’mon is the laughing-est and crying-est movie of the year
Toward the end of C’mon C’mon Joaquin Phoenix’s uncle Johnny asks his nephew: “Are you laughing or are you crying? I can’t tell.” As is the case with most of his filmography, viewers of Mike Mills’s brilliant new film would almost certainly answer with a very enthusiastic “both”.
Starring Lady Gaga, House of Gucci is a decadent cornucopia overflowing with performances for the ages
With House of Gucci, Ridley Scott brings us another story of powerful men, tremendous wealth, and a fashion institution facing decrepitude, all shaken up by one ambitious woman. Without getting into questions of accuracy, it’s an incredibly wild ride powered by the heat of showy performances by a cast crowded with A-listers. It’s a film that’s way too big for just one review, so on the event of it’s wide release, we tried to break down our feelings about it with a little roundtable.
Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time does justice to the story of a complex man
It’s nearly impossible, from a third party perspective, to give the full account of a man’s life. To read about him in a book, a magazine, or a newspaper, to talk to those who knew and loved him, it’s barely a caricature of the actual person; a two-dimensional facsimile. Fortunately for him and for us, director Robert Weide didn’t have to stoop to such measures to discover what made Kurt Vonnegut tick, he lived it. He met him, grew to know him, grew to love him, and over several decades’ time this film became a footnote in a friendship that would come to define him. Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time is a love letter, a friendship that would span many years, many life changes, and bring meaning to both their lives.
Lin Manuel Miranda’s remix brings tick, tick … BOOM! from stage to screen
When we first encounter Andrew Garfield as Jonathan Larson — on a small unadorned stage, hunched behind a piano, in the throes of performing his one-man musical — someone unfamiliar with the real composer/playwright could be forgiven that the actor was overplaying his theatricality. The trademark pile of overgrown curly hair. The twitchy, broad, lightning-quick expressions that play to the last row. A voice and attitude bursting with a self-assuredness to cover a deep longing to be adored. If you don’t buy it right away, grainy video playing over the end credits will confirm to those with no memories of their own of the 1990s that rather than an exaggeration, Garfield’s portrayal is uncannily accurate. It’s an amazingly rich and well studied performance that anchors a movie musical that’s a love letter to a time, place, and an artist with enduring influence.