Sputnik: Passenger
For decades, Russian filmmakers have largely ignored the international audience. They’ve made films strictly for domestic moviegoers, because there have been enough of those...
Black, Gold, and Red Penguins
My interests in hockey and film don’t often intersect, but with the NHL back on the ice, Universal Studios is putting out Red Penguins,...
Amulet: Chiroptophobia
Nowhere have women film directors made such an impact as in horror movies. Of course, women have now directed great films in every genre,...
Yes, God, Yes: Avoid Leafy Greens
Yes, God, Yes brings back memories for me, because it is set at a Catholic school spiritual retreat in the early 2000s. I went...
Relic: Black Death
I couldn’t obtain a screener of Relic, so I strapped into a hazmat suit — okay, maybe a bit less than that — and...
First Cow: Got Milk?
Some of the most fascinating filmmakers seem to have been born at the wrong time. Whit Stillman should have been writing Restoration comedies, Guy...
Shirley That’s Enough
Lots of actors can express contempt, but when Elisabeth Moss grabs hold of it, it’s special. Somehow she makes that basic emotion into something...
Spaceship Earth: A Whole New World
I was a teenager in Arizona when eight scientists sequestered themselves in Biosphere 2, a geodesic dome in the desert outside Tucson containing an...
Painter and the Thief: Crimes of the Art
Movies like Topkapi and The Thomas Crown Affair would have you believe that art thieves are glamorous aesthetes who commit their crimes because of...
Lucky Grandma: Figure Eights
Last summer we saw The Farewell, a film revolving around a sweet old Chinese woman that struck a chord with American audiences. However, if...
