A sure-fire, if somewhat overlong crowd pleaser, Blinded by the Light does a fine job of illustrating the various ways that pop culture can pick us up when we’re feeling down, but also how fandom and adulation can become a crutch.
Although it might be biting off more than it can convincingly chew in a single sitting, the smartly written and exceptionally acted drama Luce is great examination of the muddy nature of modern discourse, human selfishness, race, and societal expectations, among other things.
With only three feature documentaries to her credit thus far, Nanfu Wang has already established herself as one of the best nonfiction filmmakers of all time, and the wrenchingly personal and politically loaded One Child Nation is her finest and most important work yet.
Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw doubles down on the silly stupidity that made its predecessors so memorable, while playing some of the franchise’s corniest and most groan worthy dramatic impulses for intentional laughs instead of the unintended sort.
The third season of one of Netflix’s best original series, GLOW, might strike some of the show’s closest fans and supporters as an unusual change in direction. There’s very little wrestling and silliness for the girls of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling this season, but it’s hardly missed, replaced instead with a lot of character development and intriguingly diverging storylines for all of the core players.
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, the ninth (and possibly second to last) film from writer-director Quentin Tarantino is precisely the kind of love letter to old school cinema, television, music, and aesthetics that one would expect from a brainy movie brat with an eye for exceptional visuals and fine details and an ear for snappy dialogue.
The highly anticipated fourth season of the beloved detective show Veronica Mars (which dropped suddenly and one week earlier than expected this past Friday) should give the titular character’s loyal “marshmallows” plenty to be happy about and leave them wanting more.
Writer-director Lulu Wang’s autobiographical family drama The Farewell is the rare kind of overwhelmingly honest, carefully observed, and unabashedly emotional filmmaking that words simply can’t do justice because the feelings being expressed throughout are impossible to define with any degree of precision.
An interview with documentary filmmaker Fredrik Gertten and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing, Leilani Farha, about their film Push, a scathing, but humane look at the global housing crisis and the greed that drives it forward.
Director Jon Favreau’s “live action” remake of Disney’s dearly beloved animated classic The Lion King is both a hard and easy film to review, but a good one nonetheless.
