By: Trevor Chartrand The meandering narrative of Lady Bird, though at times unfocused and opened-ended, is both heartwarming and humorous as it examines the life of a struggling teen overwhelmed by dysfunction and her perceived notion of persecution at every turn. An offbeat coming-of-age comedy, Lady Bird wonderfully depicts the innocence of youth in search of love, purpose, and acceptance in a confusing and changing world.
By: Nick van Dinther Hollywood is often criticized for rehashing the same ideas repeatedly without bringing anything new to the table. At the very least, Infinity Baby bucks that trend and brings us something we haven’t seen before.
By: Trevor Chartrand Striking and unconventional, The Square successfully combines comedy with intense drama to create an unforgettable satirical gem.
By: Jessica Goddard A Bad Moms Christmas, the holiday sequel to last year’s Bad Moms from the same writer/director team (Jon Lucas, Scott Moore) is generally fun, when it’s not trying to force sentimentality. It wouldn’t be accurate to say this movie takes itself seriously, but its insistence on crossing over into sappiness and raunchiness when it runs out of comedy is lazy and unfortunate.
By: Jessica Goddard Frederick Wiseman’s Ex Libris: The New York Public Library is a slow and detailed documentary about the vast institution of the New York Public Library (not to be confused with its famous headquarters in Midtown Manhattan). The film focuses on the NYPL’s many branches and services and functions, offering long samples of footage of what goes on from day-to-day in different branches, ranging from the micro to the macro. Famous speakers and…
By: Jessica Goddard From the title to the opening scene to the whole conflict at its core, Goodbye Christopher Robin is a movie determined to make you rethink the context in which A.A. Milne (Domhnall Gleeson) wrote the beloved Winnie the Pooh stories (then Winnie-the-Pooh). There’s nothing wrong, in theory, with a biopic about A. A. Milne, but why this movie chooses to focus on A. A. Milne being a bad father who apparently ruined his…
By: Jessica Goddard Mark Felt – The Man Who Brought Down the White House will work for those already familiar with the Watergate scandal of the 1970s, but Peter Landesman’s film will be less interesting to audiences not well-versed in political history. The screenplay doesn’t offer much exposition and relies on the smarts of its audience to keep up and understand.
By: Jessica Goddard The writing instructor continuously trying to put down his most gifted student in hopes of making him better and stronger. A father who doesn’t want to indulge his son’s delusions of a career as a professional writer. The sight of a Capital A “artist” bent over his typewriter in an otherwise empty, white room. These are just a few of the many contrivances the viewer of Rebel in the Rye is subjected…
By: Jessica Goddard Violeta Ayala’s Cocaine Prison is a Spanish language documentary that follows the intertwined lives of three people; two of which are entangled in the Bolivian justice system for their involvement in the illegal cocaine trade.
