Review: The Mountain
Set in the 50s, The Mountain is the story of Andy (Tye Sheridan, Ready Player One), a directionless young man. Early in the film his father dies and he meets…
Review: For Sama
For Sama is a thoroughly engrossing and heart-wrenching documentary made by the mother of a baby born in Aleppo, Syria during the rebel uprising and daily bombings. Sama's mother Waad…
Review: Luz
The classic horror film hasn't entirely disappeared from the cinema landscape, but the current trend it to make more of it than just the easy jump out of your seat…
Review: The Farewell
In this bittersweet dramedy based on a real story from the writer/director's own family, Billi (Awkwafina, Crazy Rich Asians) a struggling New York writer discovers that her Grandma (Zhou Shuzhen)…
Review: One Child Nation
Nanfu Wang has made a couple of my favorite documentaries of the past few years. Hooligan Sparrow followed a Chinese women's rights activist's journey and put both the subject and…
Review: Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love
Oh, to be a great man's muse! To have him write poetry and songs about you, to you, for you. And all you need do is sit at his feet…
Review: The Dead Don’t Die
Anyone who's been a fan of Jim Jarmusch's movies over the years - Stranger Than Paradise, Down By Law, Mystery Train - knows he has an off-center view of the…
AFIDOCS 2019: Arty Chick’s Wrap-up
Usually when I see the slate for AFIDOCS I get excited for a few of them and intrigued by many more. But this time around, I was not all that…
Quickie Review: The Third Wife
Set in a remote compound in 19th century Viet Nam, The Third Wife is a beautifully shot story of a young girl's journey from childhood to marriage to motherhood. It…
Review: Woodstock: Three Days that Defined a Generation
Woodstock, New York will always be associated with the concert that took place 50 years ago 43 miles from there in Bethel. Half a million young people came together for…
Review: Souvenir
When 20-something Julie (Honor Swinton Byrne) meets somewhat older Anthony (Tom Burke) at a film school party early on in Souvenir, you know exactly what their relationship will be all…
Quickie Review: Pasolini
Italian poet, philosopher and filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini loved nothing more than to push the envelope, to scandalize, to shock the senses. So it's only fitting that Abel Ferrara (Bad…
Review: Echo in the Canyon
When I lived in Los Angeles, I frequently drove through Laurel Canyon on the way to and from work and I knew that over the years it had been famous…
Review: Non-fiction (aka Doubles vies)
After seeing Non-fiction, I found IMDB's description of it to be kind of bizarre: Set in the Parisian publishing world, an editor and an author find themselves in over their…
Review: Meeting Gorbachev
As a Werner Herzog über-fan, I'm always excited by the opportunity to watch anything he's involved with, since he usually has a thoughtful and thought provoking view of the world.…