The Listener
Tessa Thompson (Creed, Sorry to Bother You) stars in this quietly powerful drama as Beth, a crisis helpline volunteer who answers calls from people in various states of distress. She…
Wicked Little Letters
Wicked Little Letters is a wicked good film that lands firmly in the category of small indie gems that don't get enough marketing but are thoroughly entertaining. It features two…
The Neon Highway
The Neon Highway is basically a country song-turned-movie that feels too small for the big screen but could play well to the country-music fan base. The story goes something like…
Perfect Days
The IMDB description of Perfect Days reads: "A janitor in Japan drives between jobs listening to rock music." Not exactly an exciting premise for a film, but that is mostly…
Driving Madeleine
Driving Madeleine is one of those small films that takes you by surprise. So no spoilers here! The main characters are Charles (Dany Boon), a taxi driver obsessed with his…
All of Us Strangers
This tender drama is entirely soaked in loneliness and loss and love. Adam (Andrew Scott, "Sherlock", "Fleabag") is a screenwriter with writer's block who finds inspiration in his painful past…
American Fiction
American Fiction is a winner. It's sharp, sometimes dark, and often witty satire that will make you laugh, cringe, laugh, cringe, and laugh again. Or laugh and cringe at the…
Fallen Leaves
Finland's entry for the 2023 Oscars is one of my favorite films of the year. This romantic dramedy from Aki Kaurismäki feels like a mash-up of a color-drained Wes Anderson and…
The Color Purple
I'm conflicted about this "bold new take on the beloved classic." It's good but also a bit odd with its mix of genres. It's a musical drama based on the…
The Taste of Things (La passion de Dodin Bouffant)
I love to cook and I love to watch movies about the love cooking. And The Taste of Things is probably the most delicious movie about that love since the…
The Boys in the Boat
Just in time for holiday viewing George Clooney brings us a good old fashioned crowd-pleaser! The Boys in the Boat tells the true story of the underdog rowing team at…
Past Lives
Past Lives is one of those small, thought-provoking indie gems that draws you in from the opening scene and keeps you quietly engaged throughout. It's not a film you can…
The Banality of The Zone of Interest
German philosopher Hannah Arendt famously said in her book "Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil", which she wrote after covering the trial of the Nazi war…
Concrete Utopia
Korean cinema has long been fascinated by class distinctions. Parasite and Snowpiercer both leaned heavily into the fact that society is unfairly separated by social status. In Uhm Tae-Hwa's dystopian…
Movies about Women Who Leave: Shayda and Priscilla
This time of year, I watch a lot of movies at once and sometimes it seems that two of them are on the same wavelength, despite being very different stories.…