As a form of flattery, homages are even trickier to execute than imitations. Writer-director-producer David Robert Mitchell, who revolutionized the modern horror genre with his 2014 feature It Follows, was ambitious to the point of rashness with his neo-noir mystery…
Penguin Highway Movie Review: Coming-of-age sci-fi anime is joy incarnate
Somewhere along the red string from adolescence (all knobby knees that get skinned, metal braces that get caught on lips, hair that frizzes in the heat, elbows and boned corners of bodies and sweat, lots of it) to adulthood (taxes…
Teen Spirit Movie Review: Elle Fanning gleams in Max Minghella’s electrifying feature debut
In a word, Max Minghella’s directorial debut Teen Spirit is dualized: at once unfussy and familiar, inventive and invigorating. Wholly enlivening. There is a palpable confidence to the musical drama that spins Cinderella’s story to a fuschia-flooded stage, shines her…
Ramen Shop Movie Review: Gather ’round the table for a tasty tale of food and family
If the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, so too is the way to a movie-lover’s. In Ramen Shop (Ramen Teh) — the beautiful and brothy, Singaporean-Japanese-French film from director Eric Khoo, the visionary who revived Singaporean…
Scare Me Silly: Kay Cannon, Please Direct a Rosemary’s Baby Remake
Humans have gotten exceptionally good at evolution, at Darwin’s grand idea of natural selection, at not dying sooner than we should. We live in sturdier homes now than even our great-grandparents did — homes our ancestors may not have even…
Five Feet Apart Movie Review: This teen drama is Super Bowl Sunday queso — cheesy and lukewarm
In a perfect world, only good things would happen to good people, and, conversely, only the worst of circumstances would befall the worst of us. Generous, kind girls who hold doors for the elderly would never experience a rainy day…
Captain Marvel Movie Review: She ain’t no Hala-back girl, she’s the MCU’s best
This review contains as few spoilers for Captain Marvel as possible. In October of 2016, a full year and five months before directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck got behind cameras and lead actress Brie Larson in front of it to…
