TIFF Journal: Hustlers
Lorene Scafaria’s Hustlers is based on a 2015 New York Magazine article about a group of exotic dancers who essentially roofied a bunch of finance men and stole their money via credit card fraud. On...
View ArticleTIFF Journal: Ford v. Ferrari
When the film ended at the festival premiere of Ford v. Ferrari, director James Mangold and stars Matt Damon and Christian Bale took the stage and proudly declared that they didn’t know (or care)...
View ArticleFantastic Fest Journal: Jallikattu
Jallikattu is a mesmerizing feat of the power of cinema, packaged in a simple story about a buffalo. At its core, the brilliance of Jallikattu is the coexistence of its diametrically opposing natures....
View ArticleFantastic Fest Journal: Pelican Blood
Motherhood has been a source of inspiration for countless horror films and tales of terror. Pelican Blood might not strictly sit within the horror genre, but it will crawl under your skin all the same....
View ArticleFantastic Fest Journal: The Wave
The Wave highlights the realities of both stranger-danger and drug use, but what you really should be wary of is insurance companies. Justin Long stars as Frank. Frank has an annoying wife (Sarah...
View ArticleNYFF Journal: The Irishman
With a running time of just under 3 ½ hours, I’m less time away from The Irishman writing this review than it took to watch the film, yet even in these moments following the first screening, it feels...
View ArticleTIFF Journal (Belated): Uncut Gems
If the only thing that Uncut Gems contributed to cinematic history was a blisteringly excellent scene during a Passover seder, then, in the parlance of “Dayenu” that’s sung during the meal by Jews...
View ArticleTIFF Journal: A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Fred Rogers is an extraordinary subject for a movie, as proven by Morgan Neville’s phenomenal 2018 documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor?. Marielle Heller’s A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood takes a...
View ArticleTIFF Journal: Knives Out
The most obnoxious thing I can say about Rian Johnson’s Knives Out is that I prefer its mix of genre tropes and social commentary to Jordan Peele’s Get Out. Frankly, the mix of Clue with an acerbic and...
View ArticleTIFF Journal: Marriage Story
In 1979, Robert Benton directed Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep in a film about the disintegration of a marriage and the ramifications it had on their young kid. Kramer vs. Kramer was groundbreaking...
View ArticleTIFF Journal: Bad Education (2019)
Director Cory Finley takes the good will from his 2017 debut Thoroughbreds and ups the ante even further. Bad Education is a bleak, comical, and surprisingly effective film about a high school finance...
View ArticleDTLA Film Festival Journal: Josie & Jack
Sibling relationships are complicated. Josie & Jack shows an unusually stressed pair of siblings, and how they cope with the tension between life inside and outside that relationship. Based on the...
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