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Fresh ***
When a movie attempts to make a thematic point using a stomach-churning, over-the-top premise, it’s worth asking whether the result is worth it. And the answer here is … mostly?
By Scott Renshaw and Victor Morton
Jan 29, 2022 7:04 am
Parallel Mothers, Rifkin's Festival, The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild, Clean
Clean ***
Sometimes you just have to admit that you’re in the right frame of mind for an exploitation yarn that leans into everything that’s preposterous and over-the-top about its premise.
Living, Emily the Criminal, Descendant, Something in the Dirt and more
Living ***1/2
Kazuo Ishiguro might have been the perfect choice to adapt Akira Kurosawa’s masterpiece Ikiru—not just because of his toehold in both Japanese and British cultures, but because this feels like a spiritual sibling to Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day as a profile of the emotionally crippling consequences of following the path of least societal resistance. This version is set in 1953 London, where long-widowed civil servant Rodney Williams (Bill Nighy) receives a terminal cancer diagnosis, and sets about trying to make sense of how to live his final months.
By Scott Renshaw and Victor Morton
Jan 28, 2022 6:48 am
Hatching, Lucy and Desi, Downfall: The Case Against Boeing, A House Made of Splinters and more
Hatching ***1/2
Screw “elevated horror”—like all interesting horror since the term was invented, it has been a way to uncover unsettling truths about human experience, provided you’re paying attention. Director Hanna Bergholm and Ilja Rautsi give us the tale of Tinja (Jani Volanen), an adolescent Finnish girl dealing with the high expectations of her lifestyle-blogger mom (Siiri Solalinna).
By Scott Renshaw and Victor Morton
Jan 27, 2022 7:32 am
AM I OK?, Speak No Evil, Aftershock, Navalny, TikTok Boom and more
AM I OK? ***
“Nice” is such a wimpy descriptor, but I’m struggling to come up with something that feels more apt for this amiable comedy drama from co-directors Tig Notaro and Stephanie Allyne and writer Lauren Pomerantz. It’s the tale of two 30-something best friends in Los Angeles—Lucy (Dakota Johnson) and Jane (Sonoya Mizuno)—whose relationship faces the complication of Jane’s upcoming work transfer to London, just as Lucy is struggling with the realization that she might be gay.
By Scott Renshaw and Victor Morton
Jan 26, 2022 7:36 am
Call Jane, The Janes, The Mission, Palm Trees and Power Lines, and more
Call Jane ***
The Janes ***
It’s a bit of a bold move to program both a documentary and a fiction film about the same subject in the same festival—specifically, the Chicago-based group of women known pseudonymously as “The Janes” that helped women procure illegal abortions from 1968-1973—since it’s possible that you’ll prove one approach was much better than the other. In this case, it feels like they end up complementing one another.
By Scott Renshaw and Victor Morton
Jan 25, 2022 7:52 am
Alice, Cha Cha Real Smooth, My Old School, Resurrection, Jihad Rehab and more
Alice **
I’m not sure whether to blame Sundance for including as the matter-of-fact logline for this movie something that might otherwise be considered a “spoiler,” or writer-director Krystin Ver Linden for making a movie that takes nearly half its running time to get to what its actually about.
By Scott Renshaw and Victor Morton
Jan 24, 2022 7:55 am
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande; Master; Dual; All That Breathes; and more
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande ***1/2
If you are well and firmly ensconced on the “Emma Thompson is an absolute treasure” bandwagon—and I know you’re out there—then you’re likely the perfect audience for this delightful comedy-drama that also manages to be a primary text for sex- and body-positivity. Thompson plays Nancy, a 50-something widowed retired schoolteacher who hires sex worker Leo (Daryl McCormack) to help her experience all of the things she never experienced in her 31-year marriage.
By Scott Renshaw and Victor Morton
Jan 23, 2022 7:40 am
After Yang, The Princess, Watcher, Riotsville USA and more
After Yang ***1/2
Kogonada’s 2017 debut feature Columbus was a masterful example of finding profound emotion in quiet, restrained filmmaking; his follow-up, adapting a short story by Alexander Weinstein, manages to be nearly as rich and resonant.
By Scott Renshaw and Victor Morton
Jan 22, 2022 7:46 am
