Tag: drama
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Master Gardener: Paul Schrader Rakes the Garden of Southern Weeds
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes: Directed by Academy Award® nominee Paul Schrader based on his original screenplay, MASTER GARDENER follows Narvel Roth (award-winner Joel Edgerton), the meticulous horticulturist of Gracewood Gardens. He is as much devoted to tending the grounds of this beautiful and historic estate, to pandering to his employer, the wealthy dowager Mrs.…
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Rustin: Getting to the True Heart of the March on Washington
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes: The architect of 1963’s momentous March on Washington, Bayard Rustin was one of the greatest activists and organizers the world has ever known. He challenged authority, never apologized for who he was, what he believed, or who he desired. And he did not back down. He made history, and in…
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Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe: Awakening to La Cultura de Corazon
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes: Resentful at the world, 15-year-old Aristotle Mendoza wants to blend in and be left alone, but the summer he meets free spirit Dante Quintana at the local swimming pool, everything changes. Dante is everything Ari isn’t, and his wanderlust for life and artistic spirit shake something loose in Ari; finally,…
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The Holdovers: The Gifts of the Curmudgeonly Magi
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes: From acclaimed director Alexander Payne, THE HOLDOVERS follows a curmudgeonly instructor (Paul Giamatti) at a New England prep school who is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with nowhere to go. Eventually he forms an unlikely bond with one of them —…
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Anatomy of a Fall: Putting the Author and Audience Response on Trial
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes: For the past year, Sandra, her husband Samuel, and their eleven-year-old son Daniel have lived a secluded life in a remote town in the French Alps. When Samuel is found dead in the snow below their chalet, the police question whether he was murdered or committed suicide. Samuel’s suspicious death…
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Quiz Lady: Jeopardy Sisters for $81,000.00, Please
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes: In Quiz Lady, a brilliant but tightly wound, gameshow-obsessed young woman, Anne (Awkwafina), and her estranged, train-wreck of a sister Jenny (Sandra Oh), must work together to help cover their mother’s gambling debts. When Anne’s beloved dog is kidnapped, they set out on a wild, cross-country trek to get the…
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Fingernails: Pulling Them Off to Know Love’s Agony and Ecstasy
Movie info via IMDB: Anna (Buckley) increasingly suspects that her relationship with her longtime partner may not actually be the real thing. In an attempt to improve things, she secretly embarks on a new assignment working at a mysterious institute designed to incite and test the presence of romantic love in increasingly desperate couples. Review:…
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Priscilla: All Shook Up in Heartbreak Hotel
Movie info via IMDB: When teenage Priscilla Beaulieu meets Elvis Presley at a party, the man who is already a meteoric rock-and-roll superstar becomes someone entirely unexpected in private moments: a thrilling crush, an ally in loneliness, a vulnerable best friend. Through Priscilla’s eyes, Sofia Coppola tells the unseen side of a great American myth…
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No Hard Feelings: Getting to Hot to Trot Via the Old Slow Hand
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes: On the brink of losing her childhood home, Maddie (Jennifer Lawrence) discovers an intriguing job listing: wealthy helicopter parents looking for someone to “date” their introverted 19-year-old son, Percy, before he leaves for college. To her surprise, Maddie soon discovers the awkward Percy is no sure thing. Review: Jennifer Lawrence…
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Killers of the Flower: Scorsese Stays on the Reservation
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes: Based on David Grann’s broadly lauded best-selling book, “Killers of the Flower Moon” is set in 1920s Oklahoma and depicts the serial murder of members of the oil-wealthy Osage Nation, a string of brutal crimes that came to be known as the Reign of Terror Review: Killers of the Flower…
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Bottoms: Taking Relevance to an Irrelevant Extreme
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes: BOTTOMS, a refreshingly unique raunchy comedy, focuses on two girls, PJ and Josie, who start a fight club as a way to lose their virginities to cheerleaders. Their bizarre plan works. The fight club gains traction and soon the most popular girls in school are beating each other up in…
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The Burial: Mississippi Unburning
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes: Inspired by true events, when a handshake deal goes sour, funeral home owner Jeremiah O’Keefe (Academy Award® winner Tommy Lee Jones) enlists charismatic, smooth-talking attorney Willie E. Gary (Academy Award® winner Jamie Foxx) to save his family business. Tempers flare and laughter ensues as the unlikely pair bond while exposing…
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Blue Jean: Getting Pass the Girls Locker Room Perceptions of LGBTQ
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes: England, 1988 — Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government is about to pass a law stigmatizing gays and lesbians, forcing Jean, a gym teacher, to live a double life. As pressure mounts from all sides, the arrival of a new girl at school catalyzes a crisis that will challenge Jean to her…
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Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret: Getting Beyond First Period to Full Teen Identity Crisis
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes: For over fifty years, Judy Blume’s classic and groundbreaking novel Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. has impacted generations with its timeless coming of age story, insightful humor, and candid exploration of life’s biggest questions. In Lionsgate’s big-screen adaptation, 11-year-old Margaret (Abby Ryder Fortson) is uprooted from her life…
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The Caine Mutiny Court Martial: Righting the Ship
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes: At the start of a naval court-martial, Barney Greenwald (Jason Clarke), a skeptical naval lawyer, reluctantly agrees to defend Lt. Steve Maryk (Jake Lacy), a first officer of the Navy who took control of the U.S.S. CAINE from its domineering captain Lt. Philip Francis Queeg (Kiefer Sutherland) during a violent…
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The Creator: Simulating Humanity Via Machine Language
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes: From writer/director Gareth Edwards (“Rogue One,” “Godzilla“) comes an epic sci-fi action thriller set amidst a future war between the human race and the forces of artificial intelligence. Joshua (John David Washington, “Tenet“), a hardened ex-special forces agent grieving the disappearance of his wife (Gemma Chan, “Eternals“), is recruited to…
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Survive: Dashing Through the Snow
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes: When their plane crashes on a remote snow-covered mountain, Jane and Paul have to fight for their lives as the only remaining survivors. Together they embark on a harrowing journey out of the wilderness. Review: In Survive, an adventure drama now streaming on STARZ, Sophie Turner not playing a bestie…
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Dumb Money: Not So Pretty Day Traders Try to Make Wall Street Look Dumb
Movie info via IMDB: Dumb Money does a good job of skewering the knowledge and experience of the Wall Street Elite. It’s a take back the power comedy with all kinds of take backs- the power of the struggling middle class mass to outsmart the rich betting on companies, essentially America, to fail. It shows…
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Flora and Son: A Frowzy Song Filled Fable for Today’s Anxious Soul
Movie Info via Wikipedia: Flora, a single mother living in Dublin, is having trouble with her estranged son Max, a rebellious teenage petty thief. Encouraged by the GardaĂ to find Max a hobby, Flora rescues an old guitar from a dumpster and, with the help of a Los Angeles-based online guitar teacher, discovers that one…
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Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant: A masterfully manipulative war thriller
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes: Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant follows US Army Sergeant John Kinley (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Afghan interpreter Ahmed (Dar Salim). After an ambush, Ahmed goes to Herculean lengths to save Kinley’s life. When Kinley learns that Ahmed and his family were not given safe passage to America as promised, he must repay…
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Sanctuary: Who’s Screwing With Whom?
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes: Set over the course of one night in a single hotel room, “Sanctuary” tells the story of a dominatrix (Margaret Qualley) and Hal (Christopher Abbott), her wealthy client. About to inherit his late father’s position and fortune, Hal tries to end their relationship, but when his attempt to cut ties…
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Cassandro: Light as Liberace, With the Punch of the Rock
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes: SaĂşl Armendáriz, a gay amateur wrestler from El Paso, rises to international stardom after he creates the character Cassandro, the “Liberace of Lucha Libre.” In the process, he upends not just the macho wrestling world, but also his own life. Review: Roger Ross Williams, the director of Cassandro, a biopic…
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A Million Miles Away:Â To Get to Infinity You Must Be Willing to Get Beyond the Earth
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes: Inspired by the real-life story of NASA flight engineer JosĂ© Hernández, A Million Miles Away follows him on a decades-long journey, from a rural village in Michoacán, Mexico, to more than 200 miles above the Earth in the International Space Station. With the support of his family, José’s drive &…
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Dreamin’ Wild: The Fate of Second Chances
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes: Dreamin’ Wild, the true story of love and redemption, is about what happened to singer/songwriter Donnie Emerson and his family when the album he and his brother recorded as teens was rediscovered after thirty years of obscurity and was suddenly hailed by music critics as a lost masterpiece. While the…
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The End of Sex: Killing It Softly in Anxiety
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes: The End of Sex tells the story of a married couple (Emily Hampshire and Jonas Chernick) who are feeling the pressures of parenting and adulthood. After they send their young kids to camp for the first time, they embark on a series of comic sexual adventures to reinvigorate their relationship.…
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A Haunting in Venice: Old School Haunts, Taunts and Hints With a Peppery Twist
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes: A Haunting in Venice” is set in eerie, post-World War II Venice on All Hallows’ Eve and is a terrifying mystery featuring the return of the celebrated sleuth, Hercule Poirot. Now retired and living in self-imposed exile in the world’s most glamorous city, Poirot reluctantly attends a sĂ©ance at a…
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Taurus: How to Not Find Musical Inspiration
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes: A rising but troubled musician searches for the inspiration to record his next song, pushing himself deep into the void. A work of fiction that explores fame, addiction, the artistic process, and the music industry, Taurus is a soulful and universal cautionary tale. Review: The only way a musician/pop idol…
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Corsage: Tied and Undone By Odd Choices of Style.
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes: Empress Elizabeth of Austria is idolized for her beauty and renowned for inspiring fashion trends. But in 1877, ‘Sissi’ celebrates her 40th birthday and must fight to maintain her public image by lacing her corset tighter and tighter. While Elizabeth’s role has been reduced against her wishes to purely performative,…
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Sitting in Bars With Cake: A Semi-Weepy that Leaves a Good Taste in the Mouth
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes: Based on the cookbook Sitting in Bars with Cake by Audrey Shulman. Corinne convinces her baker best friend, Jane, to commit to a year of baking cakes and bringing them to bars with the goal of meeting people and developing confidence. Review: Sitting in Bars With Cake is based on…
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Moving On: Something Is Stuck This Time Around
Plot via Wikipedia: Two estranged former friends reconnect at the funeral of another mutual friend, and decide to exact revenge on their dead friend’s widower for the harm he caused to one of them decades earlier. Review: Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda are a reliable pair of actors when they work together- and they have…
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Past Lives: Life Won and Lost 8,000 Times
Summary via Rotten Tomatoes: Nora and Hae Sung, two deeply connected childhood friends, are wrest apart after Nora’s family emigrates from South Korea. Two decades later, they are reunited in New York for one fateful week as they confront notions of destiny, love, and the choices that make a life, in this heartrending modern romance.…
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Golda: Choosing Life Over Ashes
Summary via IMDB: Focuses on the intensely dramatic and high-stakes responsibilities and decisions that Golda Meir, also known as the ‘Iron Lady of Israel’ faced during the Yom Kippur War. Review: Golda, is this year’s their finest and darkest hour movie. The 1973 Yom Kippur War was that for Israel and its prime minister, Golda…
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Grand Turismo:Â Lap after Lap after Lap
Summary via IMDB: Based on the unbelievable, inspiring true story of a team of underdogs – a struggling, working-class gamer, a failed former race car driver, and an idealistic motorsport exec – who risk it all to take on the most elite sport in the world. Review: Racing movies only have to get the cars,…
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How to Blow Up a Pipeline: Oh, Just Get on With It
Summary via IMDB: Theo and Xochitl, lifelong companions from Long Beach, California, a city riddled with pollution from multiple oil refineries, are now in their twenties. After Xochitl’s mother passes away during an unexpected heatwave that she attributes to climate change, she becomes disillusioned with the sluggish pace of her college divestment campaign. Seeking more…
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How to Rob: Getting Away by Running Backwards
Sean Price and Jimmy Winters are a two man stick-up crew, robbing criminals from Boston to Cape Cod. Sean wants out of the game, but it’s not so simple when a couple of killers are hunting them for retribution over a past robbery. Summary via IMDB: Review: How to Rob is the latest crime drama…
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Carmen: Authentic Priestess of a Community’s Soul
Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes: CARMEN is perhaps veteran director and accomplished actor Valerie Buhagiar’s most joyous film outing yet. Set in a sun-dappled village in Malta in the 1980s, Natascha McElhone gives a career-best performance as a 50-year-old woman finding a new start in life through romance. In a small Mediterranean village, Carmen has…
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The Pope’s Exorcist: God Damn It- Russell Crowe Finds a Way Back
Summary via IMDB: Inspired by the actual files of Father Gabriele Amorth, Chief Exorcist of the Vatican, The Pope’s Exorcist follows Amorth as he investigates a young boy’s terrifying possession and ends up uncovering a centuries-old conspiracy the Vatican has desperately tried to keep hidden. Review: Father Gabrielle Amorth does exist. He was an exorcist-…
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Red, White and Royal Blue: A LQBTQ Princess Diaries
Summary via IMDB: Based on the Casey McQuiston Novel of the same name, this story focuses on Alex Claremont-Diaz, the First Son of the president of the United States and his rivalry with the young prince, Henry. After causing a major uproar at the older Prince’s Brother’s wedding, the two are forced to avoid a…
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Happiness for Beginners: From About Schmidt to Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Summary via IMDB: A year after getting divorced, Helen Carpenter, thirty-two, lets her annoying, ten years younger brother talk her into signing up for a wilderness survival course. It’s supposed to be a chance for her to pull herself together again, but when she discovers that her brother’s even-more-annoying best friend is also coming on…
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Jules: Close Encounters of the Alien and Elderly Kind
Summary via IMDB: Jules follows Milton (Ben Kingsley) who lives a quiet life of routine in a small western Pennsylvania town, but finds his day upended when a UFO and its extra-terrestrial passenger crash land in his backyard. Before long, Milton develops a close relationship with the extra-terrestrial he calls “Jules.” Things become complicated when…
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Asteroid City: Wes Anderson’s Pretty Little Turd
Summary via IMDB: Following a writer on his world famous fictional play about a grieving father who travels with his tech-obsessed family to small rural Asteroid City to compete in a junior stargazing event, only to have his world view disrupted forever. Review: Wes Anderson has always been meta, but with a purpose. In Asteroid…
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Lola: Messing With Sister History
Summary via Wikipedia: England, 1941, sisters Thomasina and Martha have created a machine that can intercept broadcasts from the future. This delightful apparatus allows them to explore their inner punk a generation before the movement comes into existence. But with World War II escalating, the sisters decide to use the machine as a weapon of…
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Bones and All: Fine Young Cannibals in Love
Summary via IMDB: Virginia, 1988. Having no recollection of her mother, high school outcast Maren plucks up the courage to embark on a long, challenging journey to find her. Instead, as Maren struggles to understand, facing her well-hidden adolescent longings on the fringes of Ronald Reagan-era America, a chance encounter with enigmatic pariah and handsome…
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Earth Mama: Feeling the Pain of Child Separation
Premise via Wikipedia A pregnant single mother, with two children in foster care, embraces her Bay Area community as she fights to reclaim her family. Review: Earth Mama is a drama about Motherhood: wanting children, having children, fighting to keep them- and if you are black, poor, make occasional poor decisions, losing them to the…
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War Pony: Never Ever Going Off the Reservation
Storyline via IMDB: The interlocking stories of two young Oglala Lakota men growing up on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Review: The eventually intertwining stories in Riley Keough’s and Gina Gammell’s War Pony have a heavy Reservation Dogs feel. War Pony has a more grim, grimy and tragic feel. The Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota,…
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River Wild: A Feral Thriller
Storyline via Wikipedia; Estranged brother and sister Gray and Joey, embark on a whitewater rafting trip amongst tourists with their childhood friend named Trevor. Along the river, the events quickly turn from exciting to terrifying, as the group finds themselves trapped alongside a killer who is intent to sabotage the trip while keeping secrets from…
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Jesus Revolution: Getting to God by Eliminating Your Inner Charles Manson
Storyline via Wikipedia: Based on the autobiographical book of the same name co-written by Greg Laurie, the film follows Laurie (Joel Courtney), Christian hippie Lonnie Frisbee (Jonathan Roumie), and pastor Chuck Smith(Kelsey Grammer) as they take part in the Jesus movement in California during the late 1960s. Review: Jesus Revolution is a mostly faithful depiction…
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Blackberry: The Road to the iPhone is Paved with Blackberries
Storyline via IMDB: A company that toppled global giants before succumbing to the ruthlessly competitive forces of Silicon Valley. This is not a conventional tale of modern business failure by fraud and greed. The rise and fall of BlackBerry reveals the dangerous speed at which innovators race along the information superhighway. Review: All on screen…
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Haunted Mansion : Spooks Come Out for a Singing Wake
Storyline via IMDB: A single mom named Gabbie hires a tour guide, a psychic, a priest and a historian to help exorcise her newly bought mansion after discovering it is inhabited by ghosts. Review: I doubt if even fans of the Haunted Mansion will like the latest cinema edition of the Disney Parks ride. This…
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Emily: Needs More Dickinson and Less Wuthering Heights
Storyline via IMDB: “Emily” imagines Emily BrontĂ«’s own Gothic story that inspired her seminal novel, ‘Wuthering Heights.‘ Haunted by her mother’s death, Emily struggles within the confines of her family life and yearns for artistic and personal freedom, and so begins a journey to channel her creative potential into one of the greatest novels of…
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You Won’t Be Alone: Living in Witchery
Storyline via IMDB: In an isolated mountain village in 19th century Macedonia, a young girl is kidnapped and then transformed into a witch by an ancient spirit. Review: I love how the witch film You Won’t Be Alone moves lyrically, subconsciously between dream and nightmare, horror and fairy tale. Alone pares down its visuals to…
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Of an Age: The Sweetness of Remember Your Name
Storyline via IMDB: In the summer of 1999, a 17-year-old Serbian-born Australian amateur ballroom dancer experiences an unexpected and intense 24-hour romance with a friend’s older brother. Review: I found the gay romance Of an Age (on Peacock) filled with subtle echoes of Call Me By Your Name. The age difference between the would be…
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They Cloned Tyrone: Trying not to Be a Copy of its Former Self.
Storyline via IMDB: A series of eerie events thrusts an unlikely trio (John Boyega, Jamie Foxx and Teyonah Parris) onto the trail of a nefarious government conspiracy in this pulpy mystery caper. Review: They Cloned Tyrone is a wanna be Jordan Peele film. The Glen neighborhood here is a future dystopia where every conspiracy theory…
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Oppenheimer: I Am Destroyer of Worlds
Storyline via Rotten Tomatoes: During World War II, Lt. Gen. Leslie Groves Jr. appoints physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer to work on the top-secret Manhattan Project. Oppenheimer and a team of scientists spend years developing and designing the atomic bomb. Their work comes to fruition on July 16, 1945, as they witness the world’s first nuclear…
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Close: Splitting Childhood into Joy and Grief
Storyline via IMDB: With summer drawing to a close, inseparable 13-year-old best friends LĂ©o and RĂ©mi idle away the rest of the holidays before school. It is as if the two bosom buddies share an unbreakable brotherly bond beyond their comprehension–in fact, nothing can ever come between them. However, when the boys’ cloudless friendship catches…
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The Inspection: Going to the Very Corp
Storyline via IMDB: In Elegance Bratton’s inspirational and deeply moving retelling of his own story, a young, gay Black man, rejected by his mother and with few options for his future, decides to join the Marines, doing whatever it takes to succeed in a system that would cast him aside. But even as he battles…
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65: That Extinction Meteor Can’t Come Fast Enough.
Storyline via IMDB: After a catastrophic crash, pilot Mills quickly discovers he’s actually stranded on an unknown planet. Now, with only one chance at rescue, Mills must make his way across an unknown terrain riddled with dangerous prehistoric creatures in an epic fight to survive. From the writers of A Quiet Place comes 65, a…
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Wildflower: Neuro-Divergent Parents in a Teen’s World
Summary via Wikipedia: The film centers on Bea, the daughter of two intellectually disabled parents Sharon and Derek. Bea is left comatose during her senior year in high school and the film explores aspects of her life, including a romantic relationship with fellow student Ethan, through flashbacks. Review: Wildflower (on Hulu) really doesn’t really advance…
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Blow Up My Life: Another Generic Drug
Storyline via Chattanooga Film Festival: Jason (JASON SELVIG), a disillusioned pharmaceutical employee, is fired after a drug-fueled social media post goes viral, but when he accidentally discovers a deadly opioid conspiracy hidden by his former boss (DAVRAM STIEFLER) he sets out to redeem himself. In this noir comedy-thriller set in the age of tech, Jason…
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Sour Party: Sparkly Colored Farts
Summary via Chattanooga Film Festival: Gwen and James are two broke, self absorbed, emotionally stunted 30-somethings, eking their way through a meager LA existence. They’ve tried everything to get rich quick from cliche artistic endeavors and failed business startups to sex work, playing the victims all the way. When Gwen realizes she forgot her older…
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New Religion: Feeling Red Grief
Summary via IMDB: Miyabi lost her only daughter in an accident. After her daughter’s death, she got a divorce. She now works as a call girl and is living with her new boyfriend. One day, she meets a weird customer who asks her to let him take a picture of her spine. She does as…
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The Last Movie Ever Made: In the End, Getting It Done Right
Summary via IMDB: With the world about to end, Marshall convinces a group of friends and strangers to help finish the sci-fi movie he abandoned in high school. Review: If the world should end, it should end with sweetness. In The Last Movie Ever Made, the last movie ever made is the one that remained…
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Mrs. Booker on 8th Ave: Getting John Cassavettes Half Right
Summary via IMDB: Mrs. Booker on 8th Avenue follows Florence Booker (Daniella Alma) who feels increasingly isolated in her marriage in New York. A shared cigarette with an alluring line cook sparks an affair that causes the different layers of Florence’s life to unravel. Review: Filmed over ten days on the streets of Manhattan, Mrs.…
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Brutal Season: Death of a Family’s Soul
Summary via IMDB: In 1948, the Trouths are facing no income and the hottest summer on record. When their estranged son inexplicably returns, the apartment is full again – but is it big enough for the gambling, trauma, and substantial life insurance policy that comes in his wake? Brutal Season is a throwback drama that…
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Chevalier: The Cock Crows So Sweetly Off
Storyline via IMDB: An opulent historical drama, Chevalier shares the story of Joseph Bologne, a Black composer and brings to light on a brilliant Black composer and violinist whose legacy has been woefully violin virtuoso who was a part of the court of Marie Antoinette. Seeming to surmount racial barriers, Bolonge, who was bestowed with…
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Flamin Hot: Cheetos Go Grande
Storyline via IMDB: In 1966 southern California, Richard Montañez grows up as a hardworking child with a strict father and supportive grandfather. He faces challenges in his youth and later becomes involved in a life of crime. However, when his wife Judy becomes pregnant, they decide to turn their lives around. Richard struggles to find…
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Magic Mike’s Last Dance: A Lap Dance With No Release
Storyline via IMDB: Magic” Mike Lane (Tatum) takes to the stage again after a lengthy hiatus, following a business deal that went bust, leaving him broke and taking bartender gigs in Florida. For what he hopes will be one last hurrah, Mike heads to London with a wealthy socialite (Hayek Pinault) who lures him with…
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Champions: Trading Farts for Hearts
Champions starring Woody Harrelson and a winning cast of intellectually disabled adults can be considered the more serious Dumb and Dumber. The Peter and Bobby Farrelly original featured protagonists with more hearts than smarts and lots of fart humor. The Bobby Farrelly directed, Champions amps up the heart, double downs on the smart-ass, and essentially…
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Somewhere in Queens: Getting Beyond the Sticks
Plot via Rotten Tomatoes Leo Russo (Ray Romano) lives a simple life in Queens, New York with his wife Angela (Laurie Metcalf), their shy but talented son “Sticks” (Jacob Ward), and Leo’s close-knit network of Italian-American relatives and neighborhood friends. Happy enough working at the family construction business alongside his father (Tony Lo Bianco) and…
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Sam and Kate: Starring Their Real Life Kids
Info via Rotten Tomatoes: A life-affirming family dramedy starring Oscar®-winners Dustin Hoffman and Sissy Spacek, Sam & Kate takes place in a small town in the heart of the country. Hoffman plays Bill, the larger-than-life father to Sam (Jake Hoffman), who has returned home to take care of his ailing dad. While home, Sam falls…
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Flux Gourmet: A Burnt Offering
Plot via IMDB: Set at an institute devoted to culinary and alimentary performance, a collective finds themselves embroiled in power struggles, artistic vendettas, and gastrointestinal disorders. I know my wife loves to cook and I know she likes hearing the sounds of all that food prep: the chopping, dicing, oiling, boiling and sometimes the toiling.…
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80 for Brady: Making Me Hate Tom Brady Even More
Plot via IMDB: A group of friends made it their life-long mission to go to the Super Bowl and meet NFL superstar Tom Brady. I’m a Miami Dolphins fan and I unequivocally hate Tom Brady. I hate all the stupid Brady to the Dolphins rumors. I hate his greatness. I hate that he lives in…
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Air: Game Changer
Plot via IMDB: Follows the history of shoe salesman Sonny Vaccaro, and how he led Nike in its pursuit of the greatest athlete in the history of basketball, Michael Jordan. Ben Affleck has proven that he can find drama in the details of negotiation. Air, a sports drama about how Nike not only developed the…
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Rye Lane: Getting Past All the Ex-Misses
Plot via IMDB: Two youngsters reeling from bad breakups who connect over an eventful day in South-London. Rye Lane, streaming now on Hulu, is a romantic comedy that succeeds by breaking all the rules of the genre and dating. Don’t spend the date talking about your exes is the big one, especially if you want…
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A Good Person: The Addiction of Grief
Plot via IMDB: Follows Allison, whose life falls apart following her involvement in a fatal accident. Florence Pugh is one of the most versatile actors working today. In A Good Person, since her character doesn’t have to function as a self-actualization figure for a male love interest, Pugh is able to explore her character and…
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The Magician’s Elephant: Soaring to Heights of Childhood Courage and Imagination
Plot via IMDB: The Magician’s Elephant follows Peter, who is searching for his long-lost sister. When he crosses paths with a fortune teller in the market square, he want to know, is his sister still alive? To get the answer, he must find a mysterious elephant and the magician who will conjure it, setting Peter…
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John Wick 4: Same John, Meaner Dog
Plot via IMDB: John Wick uncovers a path to defeating The High Table. But before he can earn his freedom, Wick must face off against a new enemy with powerful alliances across the globe and forces that turn old friends into foes. John Wick: Chapter Four like its predecessors is an endless kinetic display of…
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As They Made Us: A Different Kind of Big Bang
Plot via IMDB: A divorced mom tries to make peace with her dysfunctional family as she finds a second chance at love Actors trust actors. So Mayim Bialik, The Big Bang Theory and Jeopardy part time host, concentrated on putting together the best ensemble she could find for her directing debut, As They Made Us,…
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The Whale: A Lot of Emotional Blubber
Plot via IMDB: Idaho, 2016. Scarred by the profound wounds of grief and guilt, couchbound Charlie, an online writing instructor living with chronic obesity, now has a crystal-clear view of his secret intentions. And confined to his claustrophobic and musty apartment, the self-destructive shut-in has all the time in the world to contemplate the damaging…
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The Good Nurse: Meds and Murder on the Side
Plot via IMDB: Amy, a compassionate nurse and single mother struggling with a life-threatening heart condition, is stretched to her physical and emotional limits by the hard and demanding night shifts at the ICU. But help arrives when Charlie, a thoughtful and empathetic fellow nurse, starts at her unit. While sharing long nights at the…
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Babylon: Unable to Get Past the Partying into the Art of Moviemaking
Plot via IMDB; An original epic set in 1920s Los Angeles led by Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie and Diego Calva, with an ensemble cast including Jovan Adepo, Li Jun Li and Jean Smart. A tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, it traces the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of unbridled…
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Creed III: Rocky All the Way
Plot via IMDB: After dominating the boxing world, Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) has been thriving in both his career and family life. When childhood friend and former boxing prodigy Damian (Jonathan Majors) resurfaces after serving a long sentence in prison, he is eager to prove that he deserves his shot in the ring. The…
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Bardo: A False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths- Getting Caught in Self Deception’s Indulgent Purgatory
Plot via IMDB: Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths is an epic, visually stunning and immersive experience set against the intimate and moving journey of Silverio, a renowned Mexican journalist and documentary filmmaker living in Los Angeles, who, after being named the recipient of a prestigious international award, is compelled to return to…
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Triangle of Sadness: Going Just a Little Beyond Gilligan’s Island
Plot via IMDB: In Ruben Ă–stlund’s wickedly funny Palme d’Or winner, social hierarchy is turned upside down, revealing the tawdry relationship between power and beauty. Celebrity model couple, Carl (Harris Dickinson) and Yaya (Charlbi Dean), are invited on a luxury cruise for the uber-rich, helmed by an unhinged boat captain (Woody Harrelson). What first appeared…
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Eo: Transfiguring the Suffering of Every Living Thing
Plot via IMDB: The world is a mysterious place when seen through the eyes of an animal. EO, a grey donkey with melancholic eyes, meets good and bad people on his life’s path, experiences joy and pain, endures the wheel of fortune randomly turn his luck into disaster and his despair into unexpected bliss. But…
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Blonde: Going too Far Up the Skirt of the Blonde Dream
Plot via IMDB: From director Andrew Dominik, and based on the bestselling novel by Joyce Carol Oates, ‘Blonde’ boldly reimagines the life of one of Hollywood’s most enduring icons, Marilyn Monroe. From her volatile childhood as Norma Jeane, through her rise to stardom and romantic entanglements, ‘Blonde’ blurs the lines of fact and fiction to…
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Tar: Going Beyond the Counterpoint and Dissonances
Plot via IMDB: Women at the height of their powers and prestige can fall and be corrupted just as easily as men. That is the premise of Tar, a film directed by Todd Field and starring Cate Blanchett, as a woman who is the conductor of the most prestigious orchestra in the world, the Berlin…
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Empire of Light: Living Within the Flickering Light
Plot via IMDB: Hilary (Olivia Colman) is a cinema manager struggling with her mental health, and Stephen (Micheal Ward) is a new employee longing to escape the provincial town where he faces daily adversity. Together they find a sense of belonging and experience the healing power of music, cinema, and community. Empire of Light takes…
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To Leslie: An Honest and Worthy Oscar Performance of One Person’s Sobriety Journey
Plot via IMDB: Having squandered every single dime of her lottery winnings on liquor and drugs, defeated West Texas single mother Leslie Rowlands finds her way back home six years after the life-altering event. But now the money is gone, the already few friends are lost, and her long-suffering family has moved on with their…
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Women Talking: Getting to Exodus
Plot via IMDB Do nothing. Stay and fight. Or leave. In 2010, the women of an isolated religious community grapple with reconciling a brutal reality with their faith. “What follows is an act of female imagination,” is the opening title card to Sarah Polley’s talking debate drama Women Talking. The eight Mennonite woman gathered in…
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All Quiet on the Western Front: Getting Beyond 1917
Plot via IMDB A young German soldier’s terrifying experiences and distress on the western front during World War I. All Quiet on the Western Front, Germany’s official Oscar submission, echoes not only its Erich Maria Remarque source novel, but Sam Mendes, 1917, another World War I film. This is the first German language version of…
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Aftersun: Building to All Our Mournful Memories
Plot via IMDB Sophie reflects on the shared joy and private melancholy of a holiday she took with her father twenty years earlier. Memories real and imagined fill the gaps between as she tries to reconcile the father she knew with the man she didn’t. AfterSun, a subtle debut feature from Charlotte Wells, shows how…
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Sundance: The Tuba Thieves
Plot via Sundance:A spate of robberies in Southern California schools had an oddly specific target: tubas. In this work of creative nonfiction, d/Deaf first-time feature director Alison O’Daniel presents the impact of these crimes from an unexpected angle. The film unfolds mimicking a game of telephone, where sound’s feeble transmissibility is proven as the story…
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Sundance: Mami Wata
Plot via Sundance:In the oceanside village of Iyi, the revered Mama Efe (Rita Edochie) acts as an intermediary between the people and the all-powerful water deity Mami Wata. But when a young boy is lost to a virus, Efe’s devoted daughter Zinwe (Uzoamaka Aniunoh) and skeptical protĂ©gĂ© Prisca (Evelyne Ily Juhen) warn Efe about unrest…
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Sundance: When It Melts
Plot via Sundance:Eva struggles with human connection. Now that her younger sister Tess is moving out, and long estranged from her neglectful parents, the fragile Eva is finally truly alone. Already reeling, she’s instinctively revulsed by a social media post announcing the memorial celebration for a long-passed childhood friend. She emotionally recalls her sensitive 13-year-old…
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Sundance: Girl
Plot via Sundance:Mother-daughter duo Grace and Ama have established a deep bond that’s protected them from outsiders, but as they start anew in Glasgow, things begin to change. Ama’s burgeoning puberty and curiosity set off reminders of a past that 24-year-old Grace has been running from. The comforting fairytale-like origin story that Grace has been…
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Sundance: Scrapper
Plot via Sundance:Following her mother’s death, a resourceful 12-year-old girl, Georgie (Lola Campbell), continues to live alone in their London-outskirts flat. She makes money stealing bikes with her friend, Ali (Alin Uzun), and keeps the social workers off her back by pretending to live with an uncle. It works like a charm until Jason (Harris…
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Sundance: La Pecera (The Fishbowl)
Plot via Sundance:After years of remission, Noelia’s cancer has returned and is spreading quickly. Exhausted by relentless treatment plans and pills that do more harm than good, she seeks another way out. Brushing aside her boyfriend Jorge’s well-meaning but suffocating gestures, she heads back to Vieques, the blissful eastern Puerto Rican island where she grew…
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Sundance: Mama Cruz
Plot via Sundance:Devoutly religious Cruz leads a routine existence with her husband and precocious granddaughter Viky, while her daughter Carlota chases her dream of becoming a professional dancer in Vienna. A single errant click while attempting to navigate the internet momentarily exposes Cruz to online pornography. She’s mortified but suddenly reminded of her own desires.…
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Sundance: Slow
Plot via Sundance:Contemporary dancer Elena meets Dovydas when he is assigned to interpret via sign language in a class she is teaching to deaf youth. Their connection is immediate, kinetic, and frictionless. As they gravitate toward each other, resisting the forces and interventions of their separate daily lives, their bond deepens from platonic to romantic.…