The most evocative cinematic biography of the season does not belong to a major historical figure, but to a pig raising her offspring in a deceptively serene landscape. “Gunda” is a documentary…
Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spencer become a force to be reckoned with in Netflix’s “Thunder Force.” Written and directed by Ben Flacone, McCarthy’s husband and frequent collaborator, this action…
A young military man’s journey as he comes of age and grapples with his sexuality is at the center of “Moffie,” a South African drama set during apartheid. Kai Luke Brummer…
A cardinal rule in storytelling is that the moment you leave the kids alone they go wild. “Voyagers” raises the stakes by setting the hormonal chaos in space. Writer-director Neil Burger…
Westerns tend to be defined by vast, stretching landscapes in a romanticized 19th century America. Netflix’s “Concrete Cowboy” is an excellent western set in the present, and not in some Montana frontier…
A Jewish mourning ritual provides the setting for one of the most awkward afternoon’s of a young New York woman’s life in the indie feature “Shiva Baby.” Rachel Sennott stars as…
Every year around this time, a film comes along that deals with faith, but this year’s biggest Easter weekend offering, “The Unholy,” contains more frights than we are used to seeing in…
“Godzilla vs. Kong” breathes, eats, stomps and defines the very word spectacle. As the title promises it lets two of cinema’s iconic beasts, the atomic lizard Godzilla and titan gorilla King Kong,…
Guy Pearce is an actor intrigued by sincerity and the power of belief. First achieving wide recognition in 1997 with “L.A. Confidential,” Pearce has shown off his wide range in everything from…
We are still living through the age of the normal looking suburbanite hiding killer instincts at the movies. Look no further than “Nobody,” which opens with the kind of burglary scenario that…
When it came time to write her first feature, Eddie Izzard was inspired by an intriguing chapter in the history of her hometown of Bexhill-on-Sea, England. From 1932 to 1939, the seaside…
It can be a traumatic experience for anyone, especially a young person, when their favorite band breaks up, but the antihero of the coming-of-age musical “Shoplifters of the World” takes his grief…
A different kind of friendship forms in the shadows of “The Courier,” an elegant Cold War thriller that covers familiar territory with some refined acting. Familiar but not rehashed, the plot is…
For years studios have found ways to remarket a movie and please restless directors at the same time with the hyped art of the “director’s cut.” This usually means a movie gets rereleased…
“City of Lies” builds plenty of intrigue around the 1997 murder of rap icon Christopher Wallace aka Notorious B.I.G., and that’s as far as it goes. It’s a dramatic recap of all…
In times of scarceness, some artists use what’s available to continue creating what the moment inspires. For Pedro Almodóvar the Covid-19 pandemic meant lockdowns and the inability to make a feature film.