Posted on August 13, 2016 at 5:35 pm
Writer/director Ira Sachs makes small, exquisitely observed, films that are cinematic chamber music. He does not follow the reliable movie formulas about how many minutes into the running time you introduce characters, the challenges those characters face, the small conflict, the big conflict, and the resolution. He does not exaggerate to let us know whose …
Posted on August 12, 2016 at 3:41 pm
Robert Redford gives a marvelous performance in “Pete’s Dragon,” in theaters today. It’s a good reminder to look back at some of his outstanding films, as actor, director, and producer, over the last five decades. Redford repeated his Broadway role in the delightful romantic comedy Barefoot in the Park. In Three Days of the Condor …
Posted on August 11, 2016 at 5:40 pm
“Hell or High Water” is a modern western that reminds us why spare, dry landscapes have so often been the settings for grand American epics. Like frontier stories of ranchers, farmers, cowboys, Indians, masculinity, and bank robbers, this film has a gripping story that touches on the most profound American struggles — from guns to …
Posted on August 11, 2016 at 5:37 pm
“Equity” is a razor-sharp financial thriller about people who are themselves razor sharp. Their battlefields are boardrooms and trading floors but the stakes are high and the rules are just a starting point. There has been some understandable buzz about the background of the film, the first major national release to be entirely made by …
Posted on August 11, 2016 at 5:29 pm
The charm of the popular “Lip Synch Battle” series is the way that the contestants, all very talented and successful performers, transcend the limits of race and gender — and other limits, too, like vocal range. In her way, real-life heiress Florence Foster Jenkins was doing the same thing a century ago. Her dedication to …
