Joker is a psychological character study of a disturbed man who turns violent. To give the comic book villain human depth, composer Hildur Guðnadóttir had to dig deep and empathize with the character. Continue Reading Composer Hildur Read More
The actress plays the title role in the new biopic Judy, which chronicles the iconic entertainer months before her death in 1969. Continue Reading Renée Zellweger On Playing Judy Garland: ‘A Different Kind Of Read More
If you thought the end of the series Downton Abbey would be the end of the Crawley family's adventures, a new film has arrived to prove you wrong. Continue Reading Pop Culture Happy Hour: ‘Downton Abbey’ Returns For An Read More
Justin Chon's third feature, about a karaoke hostess forced to deal with her estranged brother while her father is dying, possesses an "emotional impact [that] is loudest in its quiet moments." Continue Reading FILM Read More
Two sisters (co-writers Hannah Pearl Utt and Jen Tullock) learn that their dead mother (Judith Light) is alive — and starring in a soap opera — in this "wise, witty and richly specific" film. Continue Reading FILM REVIEW: Read More
John Williams is an honored film composer, but he began as an arranger. Williams is now arranging again, this time with the acclaimed violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter on the album Across the Stars. Continue Read More
A young Russian-American (Chris Galust) drives a beat-up medical transport van full of demanding, quirky passengers through Milwaukee's backstreets in this funny, authentic film. Continue Reading FILM REVIEW: Read More
Director Nanfu Wang, who grew up in rural China, has made a film about the painful, unintended consequences of the Chinese government's one-child rule — including how it affected her own family. Continue Reading ‘One Child Read More
The new Netflix film stars Angela Bassett, Patricia Arquette and Felicity Huffman as three best friend moms who decide to show up unannounced in New York City to pay their adult sons a surprise visit. Continue Reading When The Kids Read More
Richard Billingham documented his parents' neglect and abuse in previous documentary projects. His first narrative film captures their brutality even as it affords them some measure of dignity. Continue Reading FILM Read More
The breezy rom-com is set in a world where only one man remembers the fab four. The film so takes our affection for The Beatles for granted that it never bothers to give the music a proper showcase. Continue Reading FILM Read More
Though it's as dazzling as you'd expect from a Pixar animation, Toy Story 4 is also more ungainly than its predecessors, with coarser humor and audacious plot leaps that don't always pay off. Continue Reading FILM REVIEW: To Read More
A new film is inspired by the real-life story of Jimmie Fails, who hopes to reclaim his family's home in the gentrifying Fillmore District. It's also an ode to the city its creators used to know. Continue Reading ‘The Last Black Read More
Ron Howard's new Pavarotti film fails to make us feel much for its subject, and does little to bolster the magical, complicated art called opera. Continue Reading Review: Documentary Film On Luciano Pavarotti Misses All The Right Read More
Director Olivia Wilde and leads Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever do wonderful work in a film about two high-school best friends who have one night to reverse course. Continue Reading FILM REVIEW: ‘Booksmart’ Is A Wise And Warm Summer Read More
Though some elements generate fresh sparks, the remake "mostly has the beat-for-beat quality of the live-action Beauty and the Beast, the current standard-bearer for pointlessness." Continue Reading FILM REVIEW: ‘Aladdin’ Is A CGI Read More
Harold Arlen's son and his estate are suing Google, Apple, Amazon and scores of record labels for illegally selling and streaming his music. Continue Reading ‘Over The Rainbow’ Composer’s Estate Sues Big Tech And Read More
Amy Poehler directs and stars in this Netflix film that, while light on laughs and conflict, delivers a "cozy reunion happy hour and an ode to female friendships." Continue Reading FILM REVIEW: ‘Wine Country’ Is An Ode To Read More
The 1991 film earned him two Oscar nods and a spot in history as the youngest person and first African American ever nominated for best director. Singleton died in Los Angeles after a stroke. Continue Reading John Singleton, Pioneering Director Read More
A controversial proposal would have limited the ability of streaming services to compete for Oscars. But after a dust-up that even included the Justice Department, the academy decided against it. Continue Reading Academy Leaves Read More
A new book by Mallory O'Meara explores the life of artist Milicent Patrick, who worked on Fantasia and costumed a legendary Hollywood monster — and then ran afoul of misogyny in the workplace. Continue Reading The Forgotten Woman Read More
Though less thematically precise than Get Out, Jordan Peele's latest film doubles down on horror — and excels at capturing the mundane, funny moments between the big scares. Continue Reading FILM REVIEW: When You Meet The Enemy, And It Is Read More
Newly restored footage of the historic 1969 moonshot widens the focus to include the hundreds of men and women who made the mission possible. Continue Reading FILM REVIEW: Documentary ‘Apollo 11’ Retells Read More
First-time writer-director Robert D. Krzykowski's odd, flashback-besotted film is a love letter to its leading man, who plays a World War II veteran struggling to remember his past. Continue Reading FILM REVIEW: Sam Elliott Is Read More
Peter Jackson's documentary, featuring expertly restored archival footage from the first World War, is "astonishing"; his "digital tools summon empathy, not spectacle." Continue Reading FILM REVIEW: World War I Brought To Read More
For the first time in 20 years, a large body of films, music, and books has entered the public domain. That means they can be reworked by new creators in conversation with the originals. Continue Reading Freed From Copyright, These Classic Works Are Read More
From writer and director Alfonso Cuarón (Y Tu Mama Tambien, Children of Men), 'Roma' is based on Cuaron’s childhood experiences and transports audiences back in time to a Mexico City in the 1970s. Continue Reading FILM REVIEW: Read More
This year, movies where women starred had Hollywood muscle behind them. So do this year's heroines — conceived before #MeToo, but landing in the moment — mark a change for the industry? Continue Reading 2018 Saw Numerous Fierce Female Characters Of FilmRead More
Emily Blunt and Lin-Manuel Miranda lead a great cast in a sequel that finds Mary Poppins helping the Banks family deal with a whole new set of woes. Continue Reading FILM REVIEW: ‘Mary Poppins Returns’ Is A Fine And Fresh Read More
After starting out in acting, Marshall directed well-loved and successful films in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Big and A League Of Their Own both have big hearts and real bite. Continue Reading Remembering Penny Read More
In Beirut, a young boy sues his parents for giving birth to him in poverty. That's the premise of a new film from director Nadine Labaki which features her most unapologetically activist agenda. Continue Reading The Chaos Of Read More
The country legend talks about creating the soundtrack to Dumplin', the new Netflix film starring Jennifer Aniston that's inspired by her music. Continue Reading ‘Dream It On Through’: Dolly Parton On Her Read More
HBO's The Price of Everything calls into question the current price explosion and commodification of modern art "that's fascinating, but it's also terrifying," says director Nathaniel Kahn. Continue Reading New Documentary Paints A Read More
The debt John McPhail's tuneful horror comedy owes to Shaun of the Dead proves too deep to clamber out of, but the songs are fun and Ella Hunt's feisty lead performance is charming. Continue Reading FILM Read More
Director David Mackenzie keeps the scale too small and the stakes too low in this retelling of the rebellion of Scotland's Robert the Bruce (Chris Pine). Continue Reading FILM REVIEW ‘Outlaw King’ Is Read More
It's been worth the long, long wait: Amazing Grace, made in January 1972, is an extraordinary document that depicts an artist at her technical, creative and spiritual heights. Continue Reading Aretha Franklin Touches Read More
Julian Schnabel's "bold, blissful and deeply sad" film about Vincent Van Gogh's final days is as textured as the artist's canvases; Willem Dafoe delivers "one of the finest performances of the year." Continue Reading FILM Read More
Joel and Ethan Coen have an erratic body of work but a remarkably consistent worldview. So it's no surprise that their six-part Western anthology, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, feels like both an entirely coherent vision and something of a mixed bag. Read More
A fearless performance from Rami Malek and rock-solid rock anthems can't lift this listless musical biopic out of the sea of clichés in which it treads water. Continue Reading FILM REVIEW: ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ Is No Bed Of Roses, Read More
Ike Barinholtz writes, directs and produces this timely comedy about a family whose deep political divide widens even further over Thanksgiving dinner. Sloppy at times, but its satiric aim is true. Continue Reading FILM Read More
This by-the-numbers documentary misses a step by focusing on the late Gilda Radner's celebrity over her comedy, but it's effective when it lets her recently discovered journals do the talking. Continue Reading FILM REVIEW: In Read More
Filmmaker Robert Greene combines documentary and theatrical performance to tell the tale of a deadly mass deportation of copper miners in 1917. Continue Reading FILM REVIEW: Compelling Documentary Evokes Brutal Past Of Read More
The best-selling novel about Southeast Asia's super wealthy is now a movie. Jon Chu is the director. The movie's themes of identity, class and family are universal. Continue Reading ‘Crazy Rich Asians’: Love, Loyalty And Lots Of MoneyRead More
Day of the Soldado reunites CIA agent Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) and the “hitman” of the title, Alejandro Gillick (Benicio Del Toro). With the initial blessing of the Secretary of Defense (Matthew Modine) and the supervision of a CIA handler (Catherine Keener), Graver and Gillick engineer a false-flag kidnapping to turn two Mexican cartels against each other. Read More
In this derivative but fitfully inventive fifth installment of the Jurassic franchise, our heroes try to rescue Isla Nublar's dinosaurs from extinction-by-lava, only to get their ash handed to them. Continue Reading FILM REVIEW: Read More
In German director Wim Wenders' new picture, an Argentinian nun who has known Pope Francis for many decades compliments him as the "shepherd of the world." While he modestly deflects that praise, he clearly has the charisma of a movie star. Read More
Superheroes now rule our world. At least the box office receipts tell us so. We’re just here to admire them, and assume the roles of background players. Thank goodness, then, we have the return of Wade Wilson in Deadpool 2. Continue Reading FILM Read More
It’s tough being a mom, even though it’s “such a blessing” to bring another life into the world. The central character in the new comedy-drama 'Tully' knows it all too well. Continue Reading FILM REVIEW: Motherhood Isn‘t Perfect, Just Real, In Read More
The story of A Quiet Place spans approximately thirteen months, in the year 2020. Posters and aging newspaper clippings quickly reveal humankind has been ravaged by a merciless alien force. A family of five tip-toe into the nearest town to take supplies from the shelves of ransacked stores. Read More
That director Armando Iannucci succeeds here is a minor miracle. He adheres to the outlines of the historical record, but fleshes it out in Kafkaesque fashion. Continue Reading FILM REVIEW: Historic Drama Becomes Political Comedy In Read More
