Alegria’s film is rich with atmosphere, beginning with its opening images of sickened fish washing up on a riverbank and taking their last desperate gasps. Later, a lone cow stands in a forest amid strands of moonlight and seems to stare directly into our souls. Swarms of bees take flight in formation as if sending
RogerEbert.com publisher Chaz Ebert’s first video dispatch from the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, made with Scott Dummler of Mint Media Works, features an in-depth preview of this year’s highlights with contributor Isaac Feldberg. Their discussion topics include the potential impact of the current WGA strike on the festival, this year’s Competition Jury led by two-time
That sugarcoat smile is just a thin cover for the near-constant shaming and judgment suffocating Jem Starling (Eliza Scanlen) as a 17-year-old girl growing up in a fundamentalist Christian community in Kentucky. Laurel Parmet’s brilliant coming-of-age drama “The Starling Girl” captures the vulnerable teen at the moment she’s finding herself, finding love (or is that
Living in 2257, Caleb (Isaiah Russell-Bailey) is in mourning. His father (Kid Cudi) recently died on the job, leaving him an orphan in the lunar mining colony they call home. Because his parents are dead, he is granted the opportunity to travel to the paradisal planet Omega, a 75-year journey that’ll require him to be
The writer and director, former stuntman Jesse V. Johnson (“Avengement”), throws audiences into the middle of action. There’s a bank robbery out in a patch of Texas territory monitored by Texas Ranger Alex Tyree (Jane) that was spearheaded by a former IRA member named Declan McBride (Dean Jagger). Alex is in the process of arresting
A tender and compassionate debut feature by writer/directors Mark Slutsky and Sarah Watts, the latter of whom grew up gay in a Jehovah’s Witness community, “You Can Live Forever” lets the romantic tension between its protagonists build slowly and naturally, in stolen glances and small touches. As Jaime and Marike circle each other, at once
The original series took it as understood that there was complete diversity, and everybody was fine with that. And I love the way that this series opens up that conversation. And that scene that you have with the Queen is one of my favorites. Tell me what making that issue explicit does for this series.
FRIDAY, MAY 5th 7PM: “BLACKBERRY” (includes Q&A with star/writer/director Matt Johnson) Johnson paces “Blackberry” like that rocket. It moves quickly without being overly stylized, clicking through dialogue and character instead of cheap tricks. We’ve seen a lot of movies about tech nostalgia lately (the far-inferior “Tetris” premiered across town at the same fest), but Johnson
The story begins with Wendy Darling (Ever Anderson) leading her younger brother John (Joshua Pickering) and kid brother Michael (Jacobi June) in a play session that includes swashbuckling sword fights, followed by a couple of nice moments between the children and their parents (Molly Parker and Alan Tudyk). Soon enough, Peter Pan (Alexander Molony) makes his entrance
When the film opens, Matthias (Marin Grigore) is working in a German slaughterhouse. While out on a smoke break, he is called a “lazy gypsy” by a co-worker, who he quickly headbutts to the ground. The sudden violence says a lot about Matthias’ instincts, but it will also have interesting reflections later in the film