Sometimes a filmmaker tells a story so dense, so deliberately ambiguous, so deeply rooted in symbolic imagery that you realize you’re either intrigued by and invested in the narrative or you’re utterly defeated by the process. The memory of Men, a hallucinatory study in toxic masculinity, will linger long after the closing credits. Read More

Let’s start with the paradoxes. The latest film from Oscar- and Emmy-winning writer-director Aaron Sorkin boasts several. Its two protagonists don’t look all that much like the historical characters they portray (although Nicole Kidman with red hair comes pretty close). The female lead, a comedy legend, has very few funny lines in the story. And, although the movie has the Read More

Steven Spielberg’s latest picture arrives in theatres with not only the weight of history and expectation, but also the bittersweet memories of his father and the work’s lyricist. Arnold Spielberg, the film’s dedicatee, died in August, 2020, and Stephen Sondheim passed away last month. Read More

Twenty years ago, Will Smith accepted the challenge of portraying a living legend, and arguably reached the zenith of his acting career, in Ali. In his latest film, he plays the obsessive, controlling father of sibling tennis phenoms in King Richard. It marks another high point for him. Read More

The writer, director and graphic artist Mike Mills loves to explore family. His own family, to be precise. In Beginners (2010), for which the late Christopher Plummer won an Academy Award, Mills dramatizes his elderly father’s gay relationship with a much younger man. In 20th Century Women (2016), for which Mills himself earned an Oscar nomination for Original Screenplay, Read More

“The Irish are built to leave,” as one character ruefully observes in Sir Kenneth Branagh’s new film, his twenty-second behind the camera. Indeed, many have departed the home soil, but their abiding attachment to it has prompted a wealth of insight and inspiration. You can add Belfast to the mix. Read More