AIDS in the world of ballet, specifically the British ballet, more specifically the fictitious Ballet Luna ("Queers have made my theater great!"). All very never-say-die and brave and exemplary, but tediously goody-goody and idealized, too. And the climax -- an Opening Night sans rehearsal -- is canned corn. With Jason …
In 2006, tech-friendly social worker Dan Cohen got the bright idea to bring iPods loaded with personalized playlists to elderly nursing home patients suffering from disconnection. Whether because of Alzheimer's, dementia, or schizophrenia, these people had lost touch with the world, and with themselves. In at least a few instances, …
Joseph Mankiewicz accepts all the Broadway Backstage stereotypes and hones them into a like-new sharpness, a little dulled again before movie's end. Bette Davis is the insecure star and Anne Baxter the ambitious ingénue climbing up her back. Gary Merrill, Davis's real-life husband, plays her husband, and George Sanders and …
Screens as part of the German Currents Film Festival.
Pedro Almodóvar's paean to womanhood, in particular motherhood and actresshood, is dedicated to three of the kind: Bette Davis, specifically for All about Eve; Gena Rowlands, for Opening Night; and Romy Schneider, for The Important Thing Is to Love. The title, quite plainly, derives from the Davis film, a Spanish-dubbed …
Pedro Almodóvar's paean to womanhood, in particular motherhood and actresshood, is dedicated to three of the kind: Bette Davis, specifically for All about Eve; Gena Rowlands, for Opening Night; and Romy Schneider, for The Important Thing Is to Love. The title, quite plainly, derives from the Davis film, a Spanish-dubbed …
Scheduled to open at around this time last year, the film was pulled and forgotten until the Digital Gym decided the time was at last right for Nina Geld (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) to have her say. If Sarah Silverman and Sam Kinison conceived a love child, it might look something …
Light-hearted, ham-handed caper film about a bounty hunter, a con artist, some diamonds, and a lottery ticket. Too brutal to be seen as funny, too shticky to be taken straight. With Ice Cube and Mike Epps; directed by Kevin Bray.
It’s all about the pacing in first-time director Neto Villalobos’ leisurely unfolding of a (game)cock and bull tale about a Costa Rican broomstick in security guard’s clothing and the friendships he derives after bantering a bantam out of his landlord. Chalo (Allan Cascante) is the type of charmer who’ll sit …
A lyrical, decades-spanning exploration across a woman's life in Mississippi, the feature debut from award-winning poet, photographer, and filmmaker Raven Jackson is a haunting and richly layered portrait, an ode to the generations of people and places that shape us. Starring Charleen McClure, Moses Ingram, Reginald Helms Jr., Zainab Jah, …
Animated animal tale, about a flea-bitten mutt short-changed on devotion to humans, and embroiled in a turf war with a no-good cur. The canine protagonist's beyond-and-back experience, after being "rubbed out" by his rival, is decently inventive: he snatches his assigned time-piece from an administrator in the celestial Hall of …