“Sometimes the result is all that matters.” — Romeo, Graduation Graduation is a bleak, bleak movie about a loving father making a series of profoundly idiotic choices on behalf of his teenage daughter. It is nominally about parenthood, sexual…
Movie Review: Dean
Dean is not, as it purports to be in nearly all of its marketing material, a “comedy about tragedy.” It’s more along the lines of a middling post-mumblecore dramedy about Demetri Martin wish-fulfilling himself into bed with Gillian Jacobs. Granted, that…
Movie Review: Tomorrow Ever After
Tomorrow Ever After is a really, truly, inescapably bad movie, primarily due to its director and star Ela Thier spreading herself far, far too thin in its production. Some filmmaker/actors can direct themselves. Thier cannot.
TV Review: Master of None Season 2
While Master of None doesn’t quite achieve a coherent greatness, it does something almost as impressive, which is to establish a level of distinction and assurance rarely seen in TV comedies.
Movie Review: The Wedding Plan
The Wedding Plan is a film wherein the protagonist has an extended philosophical conversation with her seamstress – a character who appears in only one scene – about God, His will, faith, and religion. It’s a film whose closing shot reflects its opening shot in a breathtaking way. It’s a film that consistently defied my expectations and predictions. It’s a film that has the plot of a 90s romantic comedy but the weight and assurance of a Coen Brothers’ classic. As far as I’m concerned, Burshtein has cemented a status not only as one of Israel’s most important auteurs but as a filmmaker international audiences should have their eyes on.
IFF Boston Review: Lemon
The brilliance of Janicza Bravo’s Lemon is clear juxtaposed against another IFF Boston pick – the Alison Brie-Aubrey Plaza vehicle The Little Hours. Both films play in an absurdist sandbox, boosted by stacked casts in the vein of Wet Hot American…
IFF Boston Review: The Little Hours
The Little Hours opens with a promising title sequence: medieval-era nun Aubrey Plaza leads a donkey through the woods as dramatic, orchestral music plays. The instinctive association one makes is to Monty Python and the Holy Grail, a comparison that…
