A documentary about the life and work of Frank Zappa is so obvious that it seems like there should already have been four or five of them. Watching Alex Winter’s Zappa, it becomes clear why no one attempted it before, and why Winter is the right filmmaker for the job. How can any one film […]
Every chapter of American history, every aspect of American culture, and every American industry has been shaped by immigration. This is more than a political talking point. It’s a concrete reality, and nowhere is it clearer than in the story of the Cambodian influence in the donut industry. Alice Gu’s new documentary The Donut King […]
Many of us have found safe, socially distant ways to do the things we considered normal before the pandemic, such as drive-by birthday parties or outdoor, masked haircuts. When and how we might go to the movies like we once did is a tougher issue to resolve, because there’s no getting around the problem of […]
Like the movement it depicts, The Glorias cares so deeply for its subject that it persists through all obstacles and missteps, because where it’s going is worth the struggle. It’s overlong but it’s passionate. It’s uneven but it’s determined. It ultimately ties itself too neatly to a specific moment in recent history, but it’s a […]
About halfway through Get Duked!, there comes a moment when you realize this silly little comedy about a group of city-dwelling teenagers in the Scottish Highlands became a bold experiment in instinctive filmmaking. Right when it seems like things are about to fly off the rails, it’s clear that it was slowly evolving into a […]
Kris Rey’s I Used To Go Here examines the many trials and tribulations familiar to any creative person who goes professional, but the film itself is about more than artistic drive or finding inspiration. Our lead character, Kate Conklin (Gillian Jacobs), has pursued a very specific template of success all her life. When she finally […]
For those of us who were teenagers in the 1990s and early 2000s, the “walled garden” of America Online was how many of us connected with the world on a then-unprecedented scale. One could surf the World Wide Web using an early browser like Netscape, but the security of a closed platform made this enormous […]
As our country struggles with its foundational mythology, we are faced with the question of how the story would be framed if it were written by those whose names are lost to history yet participated in its creation. Though First Cow is not made with a didactic tone, it asks us to consider vital questions […]
This review contains mild spoilers, so if you prefer to avoid them, let your main takeaway be that Irresistible is an unfunny comedy, an uneven production, and a toothless satire with a message about as clarifying in the current political climate as a Check Engine light in a demolition derby. The second film from writer-director […]
To say that Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods is ripped from the headlines is to give those headlines too much credit. Filming wrapped last summer, but the movie is more rooted in this moment than the latest breaking stories. Even its flashbacks have more to say about the present than the 24-hour news networks. Like […]