By John Corrado The tagline for Mother Mary, the latest film from writer-director David Lowery, is “this is not a ghost story.” It’s a bit of a misnomer, because Mother Mary arguably is one. But it does cleverly differentiate this bold effort from Lowery’s low-key, experimental 2017 film A Ghost Story, an understated gem which… Read More Movie Review: Mother Mary
By John Corrado The Drama, the latest film from Norwegian writer-director Kristoffer Borgli, starts off feeling like a typical indie rom-com, complete with a coffee shop “meet-cute” between our protagonists Charlie Thompson (Robert Pattinson) and Emma Harwood (Zendaya). But there’s something off about it. And if you’ve seen Borgli’s previous films Dream Scenario and Sick… Read More Movie Review: The Drama
By John Corrado Undertone, the creepy, slow-burn directorial debut of Toronto-based filmmaker Ian Tuason, is the latest horror movie being put out by indie powerhouse A24. And it’s the epitome of a Canadian success story, with the distributor picking up the rights for seven figures in a competitive bidding war after Tuason’s film premiered at… Read More Movie Review: Undertone
By John Corrado Charli XCX stars as a version of herself in The Moment, an A24 film that is neither concert movie or documentary, but rather a sort of docu-fiction hybrid that follows the British pop star on her Brat stadium tour. Or at least a version of all of these things. The film comes… Read More Movie Review: The Moment
By John Corrado The opening shot of writer-director Mary Bronstein’s intense and suffocating but occasionally darkly funny If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is a tight closeup on lead actress Rose Byrne’s face. She is in a doctor’s appointment for her sick daughter (Delaney Quinn), with some disagreement about her treatment plan. The doctor… Read More Movie Review: If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
By John Corrado Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson stars in The Smashing Machine, a very good biopic of early UFC fighter Mark Kerr, that finds the wrestler-turned-actor giving it his all in his first big, meaty dramatic role. The film, which also serves as the first solo outing of director Benny Safdie, after splitting from his… Read More Movie Review: The Smashing Machine
By John Corrado Watching Eddington, the new movie from writer-director Ari Aster, it’s hard not to think about how much we still haven’t processed from the year 2020, even though it was (shockingly) five years ago now. Aster’s film is set in May of 2020, to be precise, at the height of mask mandates, lockdowns,… Read More Movie Review: Eddington
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