Critic’s Notebook
Two popes (who cheat theater)
Fernando Meirelles's "The Two Popes" should have been a stage play. In such a play, with Jonathan Pryce as the [...]
Mother’s back
In Mitzi Pierone's sorcery and female-brokered horror, two on-the-lam city drug dealers — Petula (Imogen Waterhouse) and Tilda (Sasha Hay) [...]
For love of craft
Film critic Max Oxley sees Martin Scorsese's "The Irishman" as yet another demonstration of the aging director's devotion to character-rich storytelling.
Father Neptune
Science fiction set in the outer recesses of the solar system gives directors infinite license to break from the needs [...]
Linklater heads south
Imagine this: You're a little hungry, so you step into a small Italian trattoria for a meal. You have modest [...]
Breaking the rules
Director Quentin Tarantino, the ultimate rule-breaker, is at it again in “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood.” A kinder, [...]
Feminism comes to “Toy Story”
The latest installment of “Toy Story” is a romantic comedy in the classic mold, featuring Woody (Tom Hanks) as the [...]
Bad times get worse
There is reason to believe that 2018's “Bad Times” could have been a very good film. The contained, isolated setting [...]
The bonds that tie
The scene that best defines “The Sisters Brothers” takes place along a river bank in the remote, anarchic, gold-rush California [...]
Peeling back Peele
For director and writer Jordan Peele, there’s always another layer to be revealed — a subterranean one. In “Get Out!” [...]
An artist bears witness
Director and writer Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s Oscar-nominated “Never Look Away,” loosely based on the life of top-selling German artist [...]
Hot blood, cold war
In a year in cinema dominated by both race and films “based on a true story,” “Cold War,” filmed in [...]