Same carnage, different kids. This time the torture-porn embraces alternative forms of medicine such as acupuncture and laser surgery (if you have a thing about eyes, it’s best to close yours). There’s a terrific mounting sight gag (did you hear the one about the gymnast, a thumbtack, and a balance …
The ancient, noble quest of the archetypal hero was resonated by famous mythologist Joseph Campbell. This film says little about Campbell but quotes his ideas (“find your bliss,” etc.) in a buzzy spray of testimonials, celebrities (Tony Hawk, Mick Fleetwood, Laird Hamilton, Deepak Chopra), film clips (Star Wars, The Wizard …
Dramatized uplift of an inspiring man, with the glow of a National Geographic production. Oliver Litondo is moving as very old, partly crippled (from torture) Maruge, a long-ago Mau Mau rebel in Kenya who decides he finally wants to read and write. Pretty Naomie Harris is a charisma burst as …
While sifting through the remains of his recently deceased grandmother’s apartment in Tel Aviv, Arnon Goldfinger came across documentation linking his grandparents - both refugees from Hitler’s Germany — with high-ranking Nazi minister Baron Leopold von Mildenstein. He then decided to turn his findings into a feature-length documentary. Instead of …
Spirited remake of the 1984 hit about hormonal teens who face a preacher’s ban on dancing, their liberation coming with the title tune. Dennis Quaid is the grim cleric who hates the devil’s music — funny, if you remember Quaid rippin’ and rockin’ in Great Balls of Fire! Kenny Wormald, …
Movie or infomercial? Both, convincingly. “Let food be your medicine,” said wise old Hippocrates. Too often, modern food hooks us on salt, sugars, cholesterol, and meat-based protein, causing obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease. Director Lee Fulkerson ate himself back to health by following the advice of Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn Jr. …
Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake star as physically perfect specimens, each unable to maintain a committed relationship, who decide to use each other for sex. It’s an attempt to parody romantic comedies that quickly disintegrates into precisely what it’s spoofing. This thing stank when they called it No Strings Attached. …
Was this remake necessary? A one-mile-square housing development situated in the middle of the Las Vegas desert is the setting for this digitized facelift of Tom Holland’s ho-hum 1985 cult-horror item. No one believes Anton Yelchin’s claim that neighbor Colin Farrell is a vampire and responsible for the death of …
Teens band together to save the old clubhouse! Only this time, it's in Yokohama! The latest arrival from Studio Ghibli.
A stylized pipsqueak comedy from performance artist, director, and deadpan conceptualist Miranda July. Her spaced husband (Hamish Linklater) talks to the moon, and July speaks in a wee voice as her sick cat. The film floats as a bubble of whimsy, like Pee-wee Herman and David Lynch conversing underwater in …
Serge Gainsbourg, the iconic French singer, grows up (more like down) from a snarky Jewish imp provoking anti-Semites in Occupation Paris and becomes a runty media star (Eric Elmosnino) who beds famous women: Juliette Gréco (Anna Mouglalis), Brigitte Bardot (Laetitia Casta), Jane Birkin (Lucy Gordon), ripe to satisfy his scrawny …
A post-Soviet Russian poet (Vladimir Epifantsev) discovers his own uselessness to a generation that chooses Pepsi, and takes a job at a kiosk, selling condoms and cigarettes to the newly capitalist masses. It isn't long before the world of buyable crap gets to him and he's reading his customers' hands …
Corinna Belz builds upon her previous short film on the great German artist, offering a richer portrait. Yes, it is more fun than watching paint dry. You also get to watch it being applied.
Judy Chaikin's documentary about the struggles of female jazz musicians for recognition and respect.