From a screenplay by Shia LaBeouf, based on his own experiences, award-winning filmmaker Alma Har’el brings to life a young actor’s stormy childhood and early adult years as he struggles to reconcile with his father through cinema and dreams. Fictionalizing his childhood ascent to stardom, and subsequent adult crash-landing into rehab and recovery, Har’el cast [...]
The Florida Project
Jan Smacka2018-08-16T15:01:47+00:00“Following his much lauded iPhone-shot Tangerine, director Sean Baker has lost none of his fire and exuberance working with a larger budget and some well-known cast members. Indeed, Willem Dafoe, as the reluctant father-figure manager at the Orlando motel where this movie is set, gives one of the best film performances of his entire career. [...]
Certain Women
Jan Smacka2018-08-17T09:57:36+00:00“As American movies get louder and louder – seriously, outside of “The Revenant” good luck finding anything in theaters that isn’t blasting you with wall-to-wall music and dialogue – the exquisite films of Kelly Reichardt become more powerful and more necessary. Following the haunting “Wendy and Lucy” and the bleakly satirical “Meek’s Cutoff”, Reichardt teams [...]
Listen Up Philip
Nikola Mirza2017-05-19T14:29:30+00:00“The poster quote tells us to “Think Woody Allen meets Wes Anderson” but it’s the dyspeptic spirit of early Noah Baumbach that hangs most heavily over this sardonic 70s-inflected comedy. Jason Schwartzman is narcissistic writer Philip Lewis Friedman, variously described by his acquaintances as “a baby and an asshole” and “selfish and unsentimental” – the [...]