The Promised Land is a David and Goliath story… but only if David’s assistant and father’s servants played a major role. Promised Land introduces Captain Ludvig Kahlen (Mads Milkkensen), a man coming out of his service to the Danish King in Germany that has succeeded his rank as a peasant and aims to make himself…
Based on the novel Erasure by Percival Everett, American Fiction puts Jeffrey Wright front and center as Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, a novelist-turned-professor who has been critically praised but popularly ignored. Ellison has always been righteously opposed to the racial tropes he sees in published fiction and Hollywood productions about Black life in the United States,…
We need to talk about Sometimes I Think About Dying. Sometimes I Think About Dying tells the story of Fran (Daisy Ridley), a quiet woman who lives a solitary life. Although she works within an office setting, Fran intentionally keeps to herself, even in social settings. However, when the new guy in the office reaches out…
In The Holdovers, Paul Giamatti plays classics professor Paul Hunham at Barton Academy, a preparatory school in New England for boys. The Vietnam War casts a shadow over the school, notably for cafeteria manager Mary Lamb (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), whose Barton graduate son died serving while trying to earn money for college. Over Christmas break,…
Is there a loved one you long to talk to? Do you think a medium and a séance would work? How about the mushrooming Artificial Intelligence industry? Yes, AI is being developed to offer an opportunity to communicate with the dead (or the AI version of them, anyway). The documentary Eternal You, directed by Hans…
Directed by Molly Manning Walker, How to Have Sex follows a group of British teenage girls as they set out on grad trip to the sun-drenched Cretan town of Malia. For them, this trip is a rite-of-passage. They’ve worked hard and earned this shot at immortality. As they await the results of their final exams, they’re determined…
There are bad guys out there. Who will bring justice to this awful world? If you think Mission; Impossible is exciting, wait until you meet a nonagenarian who has been scammed in Thelma, from writer/director Josh Margolin. It really is a fun movie. We first meet Thelma (June Squibb) as her grandson Daniel (Fred Hechinger)…
“This will be a tour about pain…, also a tour that celebrates the people.” It’s hard to categorize A Real Pain, written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg. Its foundation is an odd couple road movie but, for all the humor that grows out of that, I can’t quite call it a comedy. It is a…
On a scale of one to ten, how happy are you? That is essentially what is asked of the people of Bhutan in Agent of Happiness, a documentary directed by Arun Bhattarai and Dorottya Zurbó. You may want to think about your answer, it may be harder than you think. You may also want to…
Argylle tells the story of Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard), a reclusive writer who lives in the creativity of her mind. As the author of the best-selling spy novels featuring the brave and brutal ‘Agent Argylle’ (Henry Cavill), Elly’s best relationships are with her loving parents, her cat, Alfie, and her computer screen. But, after her novels…
