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- Reviews: Currents (2026)
- Reviews: Forge (2026)
- “Only the bad directors tell you how to read a line, how to define your character. The good ones let you do your job.” — Carroll Baker
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Tag Archives: reviews
Ebert Fest 2013: Patrick Wang’s In the Family
Roger Ebert ended his review of Patrick Wang’s In the Family with these words: What a courageous first feature this is, a film that sidesteps shopworn stereotypes and tells a quiet, firm, deeply humanist story about doing the right thing. … Continue reading
Ebert Fest 2013: Day 2: To Music and Vincent
Day 2 was busy. Four films on the docket, one of which (Bernie) was one of my favorite films of last year. Definitely in my Top 5. I was thrilled to get a chance to see it on the big … Continue reading
Review: TFF 2013: Thomas Haden Church in Whitewash
This review originally appeared on Capital New York. The opening of Emanuel Hoss-Desmarais’ first feature, Whitewash, starring Thomas Haden Church, launches us directly into the story with no preamble. It is night, there is a blizzard, and a man staggers … Continue reading
Review: TFF 2013: Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? It’s Always the Question
This review originally appeared on Capital New York. “I haven’t been gay in a while,” admits shy optician Weichung (Richie Jen), in Arvin Chen’s sophomore feature Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?, a bittersweet comedy about a closeted gay man … Continue reading
Rupert Pupkin Haunts Me Still: The Restored The King of Comedy
This review originally appeared on Capital New York. It’s been 30 years since Martin Scorsese’s The King of Comedy was released, with its bleak tale of fan obsession, celebrity worship, and rampant self-delusion. While it does not share the status … Continue reading
Circumstance (2011); Dir. Maryam Keshavarz
Four Iranian teenagers sit in a sound booth, headphones on, making obscene sex noises, doing intermittent shots of liquor to loosen up, and bursting into laughter, ruining the takes. The director is annoyed. They are in the process of dubbing … Continue reading
Beyond the Hills (2012); Dir. Cristian Mungiu
Loosely based on true events (very loosely), Beyond the Hills, the latest from Romanian director Cristian Mungiu, tells the story of an isolated windswept snowswept monastery in Romania where an exorcism goes horribly wrong. I suppose any exorcism could already … Continue reading
Werckmeister Harmonies (2000); Dir. Béla Tarr
Béla Tarr’s Werckmeister Harmonies is 2 hours and 25 minutes long and has only 39 shots. It is an extraordinary accomplishment, and difficult to describe. There were times, during this or that shot, when I found myself thinking, “How on … Continue reading
Take Shelter (2011); Dir. Jeff Nichols
The dreams come regularly now. They start with a storm, a gigantic ominous storm, with towering dramatic clouds. Rain falls from the sky, but it has more density than water, and the drops clump up on the hands like sticky … Continue reading
“Give Me Back My Beast!”
Greta Garbo reportedly called out those words at the ending of Jean Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast (1946), when she first saw the film. When the trapped Prince appears, after shedding his monstrous exterior, there is a strange sense of … Continue reading