It’s too bad that Will Smith’s new movie, Emancipation (in theaters now, and set to be released on Apple+ Dec. 9), has to go down as his first movie since The Slap, because it doesn’t really make sense as a movie seen through that lens. This isn’t the humbled bit …
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What if Santa Claus wasn’t the holly, jolly fellow we know from a zillion Christmas cards, seasonal TV specials and traumatic mall visits? What if he was now just a bitter old drunk, drowning his sorrows in bottomless pints and bitching about his annual delivery of presents to kids? But …
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One of the main characters on the great FX comedy Reservation Dogs is named Elora Danan, after the baby from the Eighties fantasy film Willow. It’s a running gag that everyone on the reservation has not only heard of the movie, but has strong opinions about it. Back in 1988, …
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In the second season premiere of the wonderful Canadian dramedy Sort Of, Sabi Mehboob (Bilal Baig) expresses a hope of finding “normal love.” Asked what that phrase means, Sabi explains, “You know: easy, uncomplicated — probably what Rachel McAdams has.” Regardless of what Rachel McAdams is actually dealing with in …
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The title of Laura Poitras’ new documentary, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, comes from a long-suppressed medical record. It is the record of Barbara Holly Goldin, the older sister of the artist and activist Nan Goldin. Barbara committed suicide in 1965, after years of being institutionalized for her mental …
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Nikyatu Jusu’s Nanny (which opens in select theaters this week and debuts on Amazon Prime on December 16) has been described as a horror film, or at the very least horror-adjacent, but in truth the movie slips beyond easy categorization. There are horrors here, and more than a little dread. …
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An entire generation was scarred on November 17th, 1978, a date that will live in infamy. That was the Friday evening that CBS pre-empted two hours of its regularly scheduled programming to bring you the following special: A holiday-themed variety show set in the universe of…Star Wars. The following year, …
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Jerzy Skolimowski’s EO, a winding misadventure about a sweet-tempered donkey, inarguably qualifies as an animal’s-eye view of all that’s warm and cruel, comical and arbitrary about human nature. And of the world of animals, which can be so beautiful and terrifying at once. It’s similar to other, more sobering movies …
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The good people at Netflix would prefer that reviewers, critics, pundits, wags, culture vultures and other assorted ne’er-do-wells who write about movies on the internet not spoil any of the many twists and turns of Glass Onion, the much-anticipated sequel to Rian Johnson‘s 2019 tribute/throwback to whodunnits Knives Out. It’s …
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It’s always fun and games until someone bites another person’s finger off. To be fair, Maren — the young hero of Luca Guadagnino’s Bones and All, one half of its red-hot killer couple, our tour guide of ’80s Rust-Belt America and the role that officially confirms actor Taylor Russell as …
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