Whoever pitched Disney’s new feature Jungle Cruise must have been a master of hyperbole. “It’s The Mummy meets Pirates of the Caribbean meets African Queen, but imagine Katherine Hepburn as a younger, smokin’ yet independent English hottie, and add the highest paid actor in the world.” If there were ever a final argument for ‘there’s nothing new under the sun’, Jungle Cruise would be …
Dave Thomas called comedian Del Close “a delicate basket of eggs ready to break at any moment”. Close wore a t-shirt that read ‘terror is freedom.’ He smelled of body odor, berated his students, and routinely disappeared without warning for days at a time. He was also, by nearly all accounts, a genius. One thing …
If there was ever a film for film fans who celebrate indigenous voices across the world to watch and amplify, the new intergenerational narrative Cousins, out of New Zealand, is it. It is the 4th title of 2021 being brought to cinemas through Ava DuVernay’s indie film distribution and resource collective ARRAY, which does more than …
It has taken more than two years, but finally Black Widow, the 24th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is here, and it lands like ‘Mission Impossible: Sisters Edition’. Black Widow is the second story focused on a female character after Captain Marvel, and with Cate Shortland at the helm, it’s also the second time a woman has …
Imagine some truly optimistic folks just deciding to make a movie musical that has a message of love and inclusion with a cast and crew of people with and without disabilities. Now imagine someone giving them the money and the end result is a weird and delightful tossed screen-salad of Crip Camp and High School Musical, …
From the first notes of the catchy, joyful theme, people recognize the classic show Sesame Street. Through the years, it has captivated and educated kids of all ages. With the new film Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street, documentary filmmaker Marilyn Agrelo takes viewers through the development and success of the classic tv show, focusing …
Assuming they can get through writer/director Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman without it triggering a PTSD reaction, scores of women who have a part of their brain unwillingly dedicated to the memory of their own sexual harassment or assault will relate to lead character Cassie (Carey Mulligan). So too will the friends of those who experienced that …
Rémi Chayé returned to the latest Annecy Festival, where his first full length feature Long Way North won the Audience Award in 2015, with the film Calamity, A Childhood of Martha Jane Cannary, where the film won the Cristal Best Feature Award, the fest’s highest honor. He had his hand in many aspects of this colorful and arty …
It’s a good thing Phyllida Lloyd felt it was high time to helm a small indie film. She’d already broken all box office records with the feature film version of Mamma Mia, only to subsequently direct The Iron Lady, which garnered yet another much deserved Best Actress Oscar for Meryl Streep. Lloyd had been directing for theater …
It’s quite the achievement to create a movie that feels as fluid as a dance. Writer/director Ewa Msangi achieves just that with Farewell Amor, a film that tackles the challenge of articulating reintroduction, second chances, and the risks and rewards of chosen intimacy for a family reuniting after 17 years. It is a rich character study …
