“The Brutalist” is as much the text itself — a story of a Holocaust survivor and talented architect, Laszlo (Adrien Brody), who makes his way to the U.S. and befriends a powerful patron, Van Buren (Guy Pierce), of his art — as it is a metatextual argument for the future of filmmaking.
While I hope Clint Eastwood keeps making movies, I realize that, at the age of 94, he may not be able to. Juror #2 is a fitting end to an accomplished and prolific Hollywood career that builds on themes Eastwood has explored for decades. His message may be bleak, but it rings unnervingly true.
Baker created a deeply captivating and entertaining film that is simultaneously thought-provoking. Although the film ends with a somewhat cliché changing of seasons and first snowfall, the piece as a whole is unique and manages to perfectly balance complexity and somberness with engaging humor.
Bloated and talkative for a film where two separate characters emphasize their lack of skill at oration, “Gladiator II” is messy and imperfect. However, it is also enjoyable and argumentative — most often with itself.
As we celebrate its quarter-century of life, I admit that there is one rule of “Fight Club” that I would change: we should talk about “Fight Club,” because now more than ever, its ideas deserve a seat at our table.
While holiday horror may be a collection of usually mediocre, only slightly unique films, that doesn’t mean they are outright worthless. Instead, holiday horror makes up a notable part of a genre that is entertaining at its worst and truly engaging at its best.
“Conclave” finds itself in physical and intellectual spaces that its thematic and argumentative self could never hope to fill.
Ernaux commented, “Film truly captures life and people, even if film is silent.” This is the power of continuous images that blatantly present the unfiltered reality where decorum is barely utilized: Images become extremely impactful when one views them as a tool of reminiscence, and nothing is more brutally honest than the direct display of time through the lens.
"Spaceman" has the pace and temperament of a film that has something to say beyond its plot but the execution of a Netflix original.
The "Kung Fu Panda" series is iconic, and the fourth installment definitely scratches the itch with great comedy, action and heart. Yet, it fails to meet the expectations set by its predecessors.
The choice by Glazer to make a Holocaust film about the family of one its most infamous orchestrators, rather than its victims, is as much a recognition of his inability to engage with the realities of Auschwitz as the Höss’ escape into their garden and playground pool. “The Zone of Interest” offers itself as a parable of the faults that plague us — a film as much about today as 1943.
The feature film debut of Vietnamese director Pham Thien An, “Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell” dazzles with mystically beautiful long shots that force the audience into Thien’s condition: the emptiness of craving the transcendent and coming up short... over the course of three hours.
In “Lost in Translation” (2003), an eighteen-year-old Scarlett Johansson and mid-to-late career Bill Murray have a semi-platonic one-week fling in Japan that's influenced as much by director Sofia Coppola's relationship to her father as her crumbling marriage.
2022's South Korean Oscar-nominated movie is a viscerally emotional, destabilizing romantic thriller with an ending that you’ll never be able to forget.
As always, this new year brings with it a new roster of movies to watch.
It took me a lot of time to love being a woman because I was always terrified that I would never be taken seriously as one.
If you go to Letterbox right now and search “literally me,” you’ll find that “literally me” can mean everything from ax-murdering Paul Allen to Huey Lewis and the News to making meth in your RV.
“Black Panther Will Return,” the credits tell us, in a phrase usually reserved for James Bond. But should she?
Even with the more modern cinematography, the score, and some minor plot tweaks, “All is Quiet on the Western Front” (2022) does not add much of significant value, essentially repeating the works that came before it.
I take no pleasure in coming away so unsatisfied from this film.
