It is a testament to the quality of this year’s Sundance Film Festival back in January—in the good old pre-lockdown days—that close to a year later, its offerings are still finding outlets for those who weren’t in Park City, Utah. Such is the case for Miranda July’s “Kajillionaire,” a film that is neither comedy nor drama yet teases elements of both such that, when it ends, the filmmaker forces ... more >
ARCHIVES
The Conspirator
A river runs through it
Robin Wright, Evan Rachel Wood, and James McAvoy
Directed by Robert Redford
Robert Redford is a good man. He is earnest and decent and his heart is in the right place. He is also an essential figure in cinema as he has single-handedly probably done more for cinema—with the Sundance Festival and Sundance channel and other film-related ventures—than anyone else in the history of this art. The late Henri Langlois, one of the founders of the Paris Cinémathèque and its head ... more >
Whatever Works
A sharper, wittier Woody Allen
Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood and Patricia Clarkson
Directed by Woody Allen
Whenever a new Woody Allen film arrives, I meet it with a certain discomfort. No matter how eloquently or ineloquently he handles his favorite ongoing theme –the role of chance, fate, luck in the universe –you know it is a ninety-minute attempt to escape culpability for that most infamous romantic episode in his life. What? Leave my partner for her teenage daughter? It’s just random chance. ... more >
The Wrestler
The passion of the ram
Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood
Directed by Darren Aronofsky
Using unorthodox strangleholds, filmmakers have long wrestled with the figure of Christ. Few achieve the full body slam as strangely as The Wrestler, an outstanding tag-team combo of professional wrestling, Rocky, and The Passion of the Christ. Robert Bresson presented Christ as a mule in 1966’s Au Hasard Balthasar. Here, Darren Aronofsky presents the Savior as a Ram – Randy “Ram” Robinson (a ... more >