Three Identical Strangers
Director Tim Wardle's “Three Identical Strangers” starts simply enough with the 1980 meeting of identical triplets who, until they are [...]
Minding the Gap
Skateboarding is the ostensible theme of this award-winning documentary by first-time director Bing Liu. And while the skateboarding scenes are [...]
Hot blood, cold war
In a year in cinema dominated by both race and films “based on a true story,” “Cold War,” filmed in [...]
The Favourite
The trailer markets “The Favourite” as British court farce, with clips of lavishly dressed scene-eaters. Ever-challenging director Yorgos Lanthimos, however, [...]
If Beale Street Could Talk
“If Beale Street Could Talk,” the James Baldwin tale of young lovers doomed by an unfair imprisonment of the young [...]
“Wisdom born of pain”
After a first enigmatic scene —buckets of soapy water flowing over a stone surface — it seems clear early on [...]
Green Book
From the beginning we know that Don Shirley-Doc (Mahershala Ali), an aloof, reserved, highly educated, virtuoso black pianist on tour [...]
What’s to forgive?
When we’re introduced to Lee Israel (Melissa McCarthy), she’s just been fired (apparently from "The New Yorker" magazine, where she [...]
The House with a Clock in its Walls
Solid acting by its stars, spirited animation, and a fast-paced (if somewhat predictable) plot make “The House with a Clock [...]
A family, coming apart
The strength of Paul Dano’s directing debut, “Wildlife,” based on the eponymous 1990 novel by one of America’s best novelists, [...]
The Kindergarten Teacher
There’s only one character in “The Kindergarten Teacher” worth caring about: it’s Lisa Spinelli, the teacher of the title, played [...]