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Passages, Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis), The Persian Version and more
Passages **** [Premieres]
In hindsight, there’s something pitch-perfect about the fact that the movie Tomas (Franz Rogowski), the filmmaker anti-hero of co-writer/director Ira Sachs’ feature, is making at the outset is titled Passages, produced (like this movie) by SBS Productions; if nothing else, it’s a portrait of a kind of solipsism whereby you just assume everything must be all about you. The premise finds Thomas beginning an affair with a woman named Agathe (Adèle Exarchopoulos)—one that he has no problem immediately telling his husband of 15 years, Martin (Ben Whishaw), took place.
Shortcomings, Rye Lane, The Eternal Memory, Beyond Utopia, The Pod Generation
Shortcomings *** [U.S. Dramatic]
The “character study of a young fuck-up” has been a Sundance staple for years, but fortunately this one provides enough of a unique cultural context—along with terrific work by veteran actor Randall Park in his first feature as a director—to make it feel fresh. Justin H. Min plays Ben Tagawa, a film school dropout managing a Northern California repertory theater and floundering as much in his relationship with his girlfriend Miko (Ally Maki) as in his professional life.
You Hurt My Feelings, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, Mutt, Cat Person and more
You Hurt My Feelings ***1/2 [Premieres]
On the surface, it’s a relationship comedy-drama about honesty, but scratch a little deeper, and writer/director Nicole Holofcener’s latest is also a wonderfully perceptive piece about the way we perceive ourselves. New York-based writer Beth Mitchell (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is on the verge of finishing her second book, but faces a crisis when she overhears her beloved husband Don (Tobias Menzies) tell her brother-in-law Mark (Arian Moayed) that he doesn’t like it.
Judy Blume Forever, Infinity Pool, The Starling Girl, Twice Colonized and more
Judy Blume Forever ***1/2 [Premieres]
Full disclosure: By the end of Davina Pardo and Leah Wolchok’s documentary about author Judy Blume, I was absolutely in love with its subject, not just as an artist but as a human being. The filmmakers cover the scope of her life from growing up in New Jersey, to trying to launch a writing career while living as a 1960s housewife and mother, to a 50-plus year legacy of ground-breaking books for kids like Are You There, God?
Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, Eileen, Theater Camp, A Still Small Voice and more
Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie ***1/2
The fundamentally playful spirit of director Davis Guggenheim’s approach to profiling actor Michael J. Fox feels like a perfect match for the way the actor approaches his own life, trials and all. While in part it’s a full biographical profile of Fox’s journey from Canada to Hollywood stardom, it definitely focuses on the here-and-now consequences of his 1991 diagnosis with Parkinson’s disease, with scenes addressing his physical therapy regimen and the struggles he faces trying to record the book-on-tape version of his latest memoir.
Polite Society, Bad Behaviour, Flora and Son, Fairyland, Bad Press and more
Polite Society ***1/2 [Midnight]
Writer/director Nida Manzoor’s frisky feature feels destined to be compared to other movies—a little bit Everything Everywhere All At Once, a little bit Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, etc.—but stopping there would mean missing out on what’s uniquely fun and culturally specific about its worldview. Ria (Priya Kansara) and Lena Khan (Ritu Arya) are British-Pakistani sisters each with unconventional career goals—Ria as a stuntwoman, Lena as a visual artist—that helps unite them.
By Scott Renshaw and Chase Hutchinson
Jan 23, 2023 8:46 am
Fair Play, Magazine Dreams, Fancy Dance, Joonam, The Stroll and more
Fair Play ***
I’m trying hard to appreciate writer/director Chloe Domont’s feature for the satisfyingly nasty little piece of work it is, rather than be disappointed that it isn’t the thoughtful provocation it seems to be striving towards. It opens with the seemingly happy occasion of the engagement between Luke (Alden Ehrenreich) and Emily (Phoebe Dynevor), except that complications are on the horizon: They’re co-workers at a New York brokerage firm where their relationship is already potentially off-limits, and even more fraught when Emily is promoted into the position of being Luke’s direct supervisor.
By Scott Renshaw and Chase Hutchinson
Jan 22, 2023 9:00 am
It's Only Life After All, Sometimes I Think About Dying, 20 Days in Mariupol, Justice and more
It's Only Life After All ***
Whether it was a necessity of COVID or a more deliberate artistic decision, director Alexandria Bombach’s choice to interview the members of folk-rock duo Indigo Girls—Amy Ray and Emily Saliers—mostly separately results in something more intriguing than if they had been side-by-side throughout. The documentary tracks their 40-year musical (but never romantic, they clarify) partnership from meeting as Georgia high-school classmates, through their rise to semi-celebrity, as well as the possible impact on their career trajectory of being both openly gay and openly activist in their political beliefs.
By Scott Renshaw and Chase Hutchinson
Jan 21, 2023 9:11 am
