Director and co-writer Sean Baker’s lavender-tinted, tragedy-tinged followup to Tangerine trades Southern California for Florida but keeps its focus fixed on the margin and the sustaining dreams of its denizens. Moonee (Brooklynn Prince) is a six-year-old spitfire spending her summer vacation at The Magic Castle motel outside of Disney World …
Lest you have any doubt about why they call it the Rape of Nanking, here is the story of one American man’s attempt to save a group of Chinese schoolgirls from rape at the hands of Japanese invaders in the late ’30s. Subtle, it’s not; but then, war isn’t subtle. …
For better and for worse, this Israeli depiction of the struggle between a Jewish father and his son — both Talmudic scholars, though of decidedly different temperaments — feels like a well-crafted short story. For better: the elegance of plot, the plumbing of character, the reams of intelligent dialogue. For …
Gently jazzy French musical about a girl (Pauline Etienne) who lands a job (or at least a one-month trial period) at a fancy ladies’ shoe factory, just in time to hear the rumor of an impending upgrade (read: downsizing). The songs work better when the subtitles don’t struggle to make …
Come for the metal, stay for the mettle. Because as only-American-to-win-LeMans Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) tells you at the outset, once you get your snarling, straining beast of a race car up over 7000 rpms, you go to the Race Place, where everything fades away and you’re left with the …
Not a total misfire, but this first feature from Jason Zada fails to capitalize on its fine setup, its competent cast, and its exquisite location. Natalie Dormer prettily occupies most of the screen’s time and space as identical twins; thanks to a childhood trauma, one is dark and one is …
Handsomely photographed but pious and simplistic story of the Cristeros, Mexican Catholics who fought back against a government crackdown in the 1920s. It’s never really clear why the bad-guy soldiers take such delight in hanging priests, torturing children, and burning crucifixes. And it’s all too clear why retired general Enrique …
A savage journey into the heart of the artist's dream to change the world by making his mark. Savage in part because of its subject: Ralph Steadman, the pen behind the twisted, spattered portraits that served to illustrate Hunter S. Thompson's immersive gonzo journalism. But the real bite comes from …
John Lee Hancock serves up a biopic of McDonald’s king Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton, just restrained enough as a ravenous dog in a human suit) that is not unlike the restaurant’s product: precisely prepared, brightly packaged (oh, that shot of the golden arches reflected in Kroc’s windshield as he pulls …
The goal is an Olympic gold medal in wrestling, but the real grappling goes on between two families: the Schultzes (brothers Dave and Mark) and the DuPonts (mother Jean and son John). Yes, those DuPonts. Poor John (Steve Carrell in a fake schnozz) is a crazily wealthy nothing of a …
Can we just go ahead and agree that the actress Greta Gerwig is (for better and for worse) our generation's Katherine Hepburn? Adore or despise, she is a force of nature, something to be reckoned with. Here, she makes vaguely misanthropic director Noah Baumbach put down his torturer's tools in …
Director Tim Burton returns to a short film he made at the very beginning of his career. If the move signals a certain failure to advance creatively, it also marks a return to the realm of the heartfelt, which is where he does his best work. So yes, you'll see …
A methodical meditation on the meaning of “we,” Free Men tells the story of Algerians — both Muslim and Jewish — living in Paris during the German occupation. To escape persecution, some of those Jews are carrying forged papers declaring them to be Muslims — common heritage trumping religious difference. …