Downfalls High barely qualifies as a film and attempts little but manages to ride MGK’s guiding charisma to some playful places. If you were one of the untold number who tuned in to the Facebook Live premiere (or subsequent recording) of Machine Gun Kelly’s debut…
Episode Description: This week, we continue our look at 2020’s very strange summer movie season by tackling the first wide release of the summer — and it was a doozy. Hinges are no longer hinged in the thriller Unhinged, directed by Derrick Borte. Russell…
Episode Description: We are back! 2021 is a new year, and after taking a break due to COVID (perhaps counterintuitive, we know), we are ready to talk weird summer movies once more. This month, we are looking back at the very strange summer movie…
Pieces of a Woman showcases a bravura if ostentatious initial quarter, but it’s all downhill from there as the film devolves into mere misery porn tropes. Director Kornél Mundruczó knows how to open a film (see the otherwise underwhelming White God, for example), and with…
The first 30 minutes of CoroNation, Ai Weiwei’s comprehensive snapshot of Wuhan, China in the earliest days of COVID-19’s global devastation, are among the most compelling put to screen this year. By focusing on ground-level human stories — in the opening moments, a couple trying…
The relationship between hip hop and punk rock is a long and complex one, evident since the early ‘80s and built upon a shared willingness to confront cultural norms and retool musical modes. Public Enemy is the logical touchstone — their considerable lineage boasting…
One Night in Miami finds power in its discourse and suggests King’s legitimate directorial chops in moments, but it fails to fully translate its stage origins to the screen. The strength of Regina King’s directorial debut lies largely outside of her influence. Rather, One Night…
Nasir is a delicate, disquieting film that opens up into something far grander than its brevity and slice-of-life template would at first suggest. What’s immediately striking about Nasir, Arun Karthick’s sophomore feature, is the ebb-and-flow rhythm of its slice-of-life portraiture. Karthick immediately and consistently trains…
Black Bear is a challenging diptych study of life and art, and the blurred, impenetrable intersection of the two. In the debate between mimesis and anti-mimesis, Lawrence Michael Levine’s Black Bear proffers a third possibility — that life is art in organic action. It’s perhaps…
With Lovers Rock, McQueen mostly turns down his directorial affectations and let’s the film’s beauty and joy act as guide. Steve McQueen has always been a fine purveyor of potentially rich and powerful narratives, but he’s been much less consistent as their steward. His first…
