“I know you’re not allowed to say it, but drugs are kinda cool.” So says Rue, the heroine and admittedly unreliable narrator of HBO’s new teen drama Euphoria, confessing as we see her enjoy a particularly potent high. Moments later, we see a flashback to the near-fatal overdose she suffered …
Read More »'Man Who Killed Don Quixote' Review: Terry Gilliam Tilts at Windmills and Wins
It’s been plagued by endless delays, natural disasters, dying actors, greedy financiers and good old-fashioned Icarus-level hubris. It’s been called one of the most cursed film productions ever. Most folks assumed that Terry Gilliam‘s “Don Quixote” project would never, ever be made, much less see the light of day. (This …
Read More »'Glass' Review: M. Night's Shyamalan's Double Sequel Is Half Full, Half Empty
What a difference a couple decades makes. When M. Night Shyamalan dropped Unbreakable on an unsuspecting world back in 2000, the new Spielberg on the block was told that superhero movies were still a post-Burton/Batman novelty. As the man himself recently admitted, his what-if project about an everyman who discovers …
Read More »'Maria By Callas' Is the Encore the Legendary Diva Demands
If you want the truth about Greek-American opera star Maria Callas, why not get it straight from the diva’s mouth. That’s the refreshing premise of Maria by Callas, a dazzling documentary from Tom Volf that draws from letters, unpublished memoirs, home movies, family photos, performances (far from audio perfection), journals …
Read More »'The Kindergarten Teacher': Maggie Gyllenhaal Peaks in Poetry Prodigy Drama
The uncommonly adventurous Maggie Gyllenhaal hits a new career peak with The Kindergarten Teacher, compelling us to understand a woman who maybe doesn’t understand herself. That’s an apt description of her Lisa Spinelli, a Staten Island wife and mother who’s been teaching kindergarten for 20 years — the kind of …
Read More »'Big Mouth' Season 2 Review: A Stinkin' Funny Whiff of Preteen Spirit
“I’m horny all the time, and I’m makin’ bad choices,” says Andrew (John Mulaney), but that lament could come from any of the confused and perpetually aroused animated middle schoolers on Netflix‘s Big Mouth, which returns Friday for a delightful second season. (I’ve seen all 10 episodes.) The show is …
Read More »'The Old Man & the Gun' Review: Redford Robs Banks — and Steals Your Heart
Sometimes a movie arrives that charms its way into your heart — and The Old Man & the Gun is just such an unassuming, exuberant gift. Only afterwards do you see that its roots go deeper, that its evocation of the past points to an uncertain future. In this self-proclaimed …
Read More »'Minding the Gap' Review: Teen-Skater Doc Is Peerless Portrait of Young Manhood
In a year of stellar documentaries (Won’t You Be My Neighbor, RBG, McQueen), Minding the Gap takes its place with the cream of the crop. In his debut feature, filmmaker Bing Liu started with 12 years of footage that he shot in his hometown of Rockford, Illinois, to trace the …
Read More »'Letterkenny' Review: Wonderfully Weird Canadian Comedy Comes to Hulu
The dialogue on Letterkenny seems impenetrable the first time you watch it, maybe even the second or third. The Canadian comedy, which Hulu recently added to its library, takes place in a small town in rural Ontario populated by “hicks, skids, hockey players and Christians,” and each group has its …
Read More »'Always at the Carlyle' Review: From NYC Hotel to Sophisticated Hot Spot
We know what you’re thinking: Why see a movie about a posh Manhattan hotel that most of us could never afford to stay in even for one night? It’s not just the fascination of watching how the one-percent lives; it’s because this storied 88-year-old hotel, filled with impossibly glamorous ghosts …
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