Strong with the aforementioned wisdom and historical truth channeled through Medina, Los Frikis was unafraid to present the squalor the brothers rose from and, unfortunately, how AIDS would sever and silence any cultural growth or lasting personal legacies. The result is a difficult and no-less-impressive film that smashes the spirited human condition against aspects of fulfilling indepdence people should never take for granted.
Read MoreThe question for each Babygirl viewer becomes how long that captivation holds between those orgasmic bookends. Even though Halina Reijn’s film boasts a nervewracking electronically-tinged musical score by Cristobal Tapia De Veer amplified by an inserted chorus of huffing-and-puffing human voices and snarling animal sounds, Babygirl is not wall-to-wall copulation. A labyrinth of conflict and kink awaits to push and pull the people of this story.
Read MoreFor many, the stark and startling films of Robert Eggers are existential affairs and appointment viewing for those cinephiles who overuse the term “elevated horror.” To others, his level of haunting disquiet triggers them all the wrong ways. No matter where one sits, audiences will marvel at the strong female nucleus of Nosferatu and the vigorous lyrical poetry given to unholy terror. As his own master of the horror genre who set out to achieve a decade-plus passion project, Eggers unleashed his vision in an unshackled and uninhibited way only he could accomplish.
Read MoreContinuing the immense commitment-to-the-bit she has demonstrated her entire career in both comedic and dramatic roles, Amy Adams runs with every one of Nightbitch’s surreal twists and turns in an incredible physical and emotional performance, worthy of another ticket to the Oscar soiree. Through enormous effort, she balances the fierce intensity of Heller’s narrative with the draw of underlying sensitivity that generates tangible empathy. No angle is too outlandish and no risk is too great to try.
Read MoreGoing through this heartbreaking ordeal, you fall in love with these two characters not only in the big moments of rapture, of which there are plenty, but in those little ones where it’s simply the two of them finding their unity and initiative to move forward. After all, true partners are found in honest talk more than pillow talk. Goddamn, the way Andrew Garfield looks at Florence Pugh is simply everything in We Live in Time.
Read MoreThe centerpiece scene is a climactic living room sitdown where old wounds are aired out and cried over with bracing lucidity. By the end of that scene (and later after the entire movie), an engrossed and impressed viewer could fill a clipboard or two tally-marking the scoring balance between earnest apologies against attempted and failed compromises. These exposed fractures in His Three Daughters are fascinating in their complication and frankness beyond the typical grief management narratives. No one ever said catharsis was easy to acquire, and that is the case here.
Read MoreBut, here’s the craziest part with that Hollywood hubris and wounded pride. Marvel addresses their overall commercial arrogance and vanity by–get this–using the most arrogant and vain character in their library as a means to go against just about everything they’ve ever done with their branded image. Miraculously, they found their jolt with the gloriously gaudy Deadpool & Wolverine.
Read MoreSure, it may have taken a bit to get there, but talented writer-director Vincent Grashaw demonstrated the shrewd patience to make those culminating moments happen on their own time and without some grand public showdown or audience. The “what for” and the “why” came to a head with dramatic focus. Bang Bang was never built to be anything close to a cliched sports movie. Instead, what burned intimately for the people involved stayed intimate to the bitter–and therefore realistic–end.
Read MoreChallengers roars forth to use the invasive scrutiny found in tennis as a mimicking reflection of personal hostilities and exposed intimacies. Keeping with that idea of body language, Guadagnino’s blistering athletic love triangle is a ballet of sweat and a battle of three beautifully furrowed brows set atop the lithe bodies of Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, and Mike Faist. For two hours-plus mirroring the length of a full set tennis match, this film cuts years deep and rips off scabs to show you why those brows are furrowed and towards whom.
Read MoreMerging this kind of existential melodrama with the outlandish happenstance of time travel requires characters audiences will care about beyond pragmatics and a lush production that can sprinkle magic on the grains of salt required. With the three charismatic and emerging talents present, the human appeal is covered in The Greatest Hits.
Read MoreLet’s just say it now upfront. Folks are going to walk up completely unprepared for The Iron Claw. They’re going to see the old school wrestling setting and the ripped bod of Zac Efron and swoon a little. They’re going to want, as one WWE superstar of this era so hilariously expressed once, “big meaty men slappin’ meat.” That’s cute, but The Iron Claw is not No Holds Barred or Nacho Libre.
Read MoreTo say Bradley Cooper threw himself into his work is an understatement. He is a marvel to behold. The actor was operating with a spot-on imitation of Bernstein’s vocal annunciations, inflections, cadence, and tone. He found all the highs and lows of hubris, profundity, stress, dedication, and talent in front of and behind the camera. Is all of this in Maestro ostentatious hopscotch from Cooper? Probably, but what else would you expect from an energy like working at an insanely masterful level?
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