This film does a good job of fooling you into thinking you’ve pressed play on a low-rent affair, with sets that look like they were assembled on a tight budget, and a premise that feels […]
Tag: 2018
Shirkers (Tan, 2018)
This is a film about loss and reclamation over a span of several decades, ending on a note of triumph even though its circumstances are anything but. There is nothing here about sexual assaults or […]
Nancy (Choe, 2018)
Christina Choe’s Nancy is surely one of the year’s most pleasant surprises. Its subject matter is familiar, dealing with a family who had lost their five-year old daughter to a kidnapper thirty years before, and a woman […]
The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (Hallström & Johnston, 2018)
I’m not sure who asked for Disney to take The Nutcracker and its lore, dunk it in soul-numbing shellac, and turn it into a tedious fantasia for the holiday season. The ballet is still there, […]
Suspiria (Guadagnino, 2018)
A bit of a disclaimer: I am not an Argento purist, so a reimagining of Suspiria was never going to drive me up the wall. I’ve only seen the original once, and that was but a month […]
Private Life (Jenkins, 2018)
Childrearing is tough. We’ve seen plenty of films about it. Stories about conception, though, are less common—especially ones about couples struggling like no tomorrow for a family that may never materialize. Tamara Jenkins takes it […]
Madeline’s Madeline (Decker, 2018)
There is a lot one can say about Madeline’s Madeline, and I feel like one’s interpretation of its contents will shift and evolve with time. It is such an immediate sensory experience that you aren’t really able to […]
Thunder Road (Cummings, 2018)
Jim Cummings is a star. Writing, directing, and starring in what can only be called cringe porn at its finest, Cummings gives us one of the year’s best independent achievements in Thunder Road, a full-length expansion […]
The Miseducation of Cameron Post (Akhavan, 2018)
Having already seen Joel Edgerton’s Boy Erased, I’m relieved to say that Desiree Akhavan’s The Miseducation of Cameron Post fares a lot better when it comes to depicting the abuses of gay conversion therapy. Fictional though it may […]
BlacKkKlansman (Lee, 2018)
Spike Lee’s passion is unmistakable. He knows just how to get at the heart of the issues and blaze them to the masses with ferocity, his films acting as missals for his faithful to fight […]
They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead (Neville, 2018)
I watched this before the 38-minute featurette A Final Cut for Orson, which is where all the details about The Other Side of the Wind’s restoration work are included. I wouldn’t have minded one long and comprehensive […]
The Other Side of the Wind (Welles, 2018)
The myth of The Other Side of the Wind has outgrown the film itself, to the point where you have to keep reminding yourself that it now exists for our consumption. Welles scholars have pored over this […]
The Old Man & the Gun (Lowery, 2018)
By now, I think we can say David Lowery’s ideal vision of cinema is one that takes its time to form in the viewer’s imagination. With a little patience, and with a little luck, people […]
The Cloverfield Paradox (Onah, 2018)
I’m not averse to schlock if it’s entertaining. And there are definitely moments in The Cloverfield Paradox that are fun in a schlocky sense, like Chris O’Dowd’s arm being… ripped? sliced? bitten? from his body, and then […]
The Wolf House (Cociña & León, 2018)
I don’t know all that much about the Chilean cult that haunts The Wolf House. A cursory search reveals far more than I want to know, with atrocity after atrocity being unveiled like stepping stones. It’s […]
The Lonely Film Critic 