(***) “A lot of things I don’t remember, I choose not to remember. I make up the rest. That’s what storytelling is all about,” says poet/writer/activist/educator Nikki Giovanni. In this very enlightening homage, by documentarians Joe Brewster and Michéle Stephenson, the icon and intellectual gets the respect she deserves. Years of speaking truths, reflecting on […]
Lakota Nation vs United States
(****) “Land back!” It’s a call to action that powers this very insightful documentary. That rallying cry is part of a stream of thought that you can watch, study and internalize. You learn that Native Americans have a deep connection to their land and nature. Specifically, their discussions center on the Lakota Nation’s fight to […]
Killers of the Flower Moon
(***) Why in the 21st century is anyone making a film about the Native American experience from a white man’s perspective? What is there to gain? Just great artistry that overshadows indigenous people. Author David Grann based his novel Killers of the Flower Moon on information he gathered from FBI reports and archival materials. His mix of fact […]
Green Border– New York Film Festival Review
(**1/2) Any allegory about the perils of immigrants and the disdain countries have towards them is extremely topical. Leave it to the very bold Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland (Europa Europa) to tackle the subject with an admirable urgency. In her haste, she creates a compelling movie about Syrian, Afghanistan and African refugees that graphically chronicles the xenophobia and […]
Kidnapped – New York Film Festival Review
(****) Iconic Italian writer/director Marco Bellocchio’s filmography spans decades and includes an impressive collection of films. For sixty years he’s told hard truths that needed to be heard. From 1976’s anti-military movie Victory March to this new historical drama, which won’t win him any fans at the Vatican. In 1858, a six-year-old Jewish boy, Edgardo (Enea Sala), supposedly baptized by his Catholic maid, is abducted from […]
The Settlers — New York Film Festival Review
(**) Men on horseback is an allure that’s attracted audiences to westerns for decades. Chilean director Felipe Gálvez Haberle, with a misguided script co-written with Antonia Girardi, tries his hand at the genre—to mixed results. The filmmaker has found a worthy premise, examining the genocide of Native Americans in his country. But in the process revictimizes them. This dated, injudicious approach is similar […]
All of Us Strangers – New York Film Festival Review
(***) The new umpteen-story building has just been completed but their relationship is still under construction. That’s the premise of British writer/director Andrew Haigh’s interpretation of Taichi Yamada’s same name novel. Adam (Andrew Scott) a screenwriter and Harry (Paul Mescal, Aftersun) are the only two inhabitants in their apartment house on the outskirts of London. The introvert and […]
Anatomy of a Fall – New York Film Festival Review
(**1/2) Sandra (Sandra Hüller), a successful novelist, stands accused of murder. Past arguments, physical altercations and infidelities—with women—point prosecutors her way. It all happens because her husband (Samuel Theis), a cranky eccentric far-less-successful writer, fell or was pushed from an attic studio to his death. His body lies in a pool of blood on the cold white […]
La Chimera – New York Film Festival Review
(**) If advertised as a tomb raider excursion, audiences will look for a Harrison Ford adventure vehicle. But what they will find is a dull, eccentric comedy that blends reality and fantasy in the most forced ways. A tale so small it’s not worth telling. Arthur (Josh O’Connor, The Crown) is a stylishly dressed Englishman and […]
The Zone of Interest – New York Film Festival Review
(**) There may be a justified reason for making a film about the horrors of the Holocaust and keeping the victims in the background as sound effects. But that reason remains allusive as this depiction of a German Nazi family living next door to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp unfolds. Dad, Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel), and mother, Hedwig […]
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