THE COMEDIAN * * 1 / 2
Starring Robert De Niro, Leslie Mann, Edie Falco, Danny DeVito and Harvey Keitel. Screenplay by Art Linson, Jeff Ross, Richard LaGravenese and Lewis Friedman. Directed by Taylor Hackford.
MS. 45 AT THE MFA
“Ferrara’s movies have a way of being morally serious despite their sometimes silly genre trappings, and Ms. 45 provides a feast for feminist studies. The intensely Catholic filmmaker outfits her in a nun’s habit and garter belts for the final massacre, and it’s no coincidence that she’s betrayed by a female friend holding a phallic-looking knife at crotch level.” – Metro, 02/03/2017
RESERVOIR DOGS TURNS 25: QUENTIN TARANTINO AT SUNDANCE
“I can’t believe I made a movie that short,” cackled Quentin Tarantino following the 25th Anniversary Screening of Reservoir Dogs at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Returning to Park City a quarter-century after the premiere that launched his career, Tarantino was joined by co-star Michael Madsen and producer Lawrence Bender for a predictably boisterous Q&A. Some edited highlights:
SUNDANCE 2017: PART THREE
My final dispatch from Park City ponders movies and meditations, thrilled by some philosophical sci-fi from an old pro and bored by more New York nattering from an up-and-comer. There’s also the festival’s most essential documentary and another Casey Affleck picture about death, this one so strange and wonderful I’m not quite sure how to describe it.
DEAD OF WINTER: CINEMA OF THE OCCULT AT THE BRATTLE
“Brattle regulars won’t be surprised to find Clive Barker’s Lord of Illusions on the schedule. ‘A guilty pleasure of mine,’ admits creative director Ned Hinkle of the 1995 thriller starring Scott Bakula as a paranormal private eye. ‘It is kind of a silly movie but the magic in it is compelling and, since it’s a Clive Barker adaptation, the themes are surprisingly sinister.'” – Metro, 01/27/2017
SUNDANCE 2017: PART TWO
My second dispatch from Park City muses on the medium-rare pleasures of a well-done potboiler and when bad movies happen to good intentions. Two of my favorite actors don’t let me down in my most anticipated film of the festival, but the movie they’re in sure does. Finally, a break from looking for the next big thing to reflect on some cinema history.
SUNDANCE 2017: PART ONE
My first dispatch from Park City kicks off with an inconvenient celebrity slighting on opening night, followed by yet another dud that doesn’t deserve Melanie Lynskey. Obvious Child‘s team returns with witty and sophisticated follow-up, but I’m underwhelmed by the festival’s first big darling. Finally, founder Robert Redford and an all-star cast whiff on their way to Netflix.
TOWER
“Combining traditional documentary tropes with experimental animation techniques, director Keith Maitland’s Tower is like nothing you’ve seen before. An oral history as a visual poem, the movie expands and collapses time to place the viewer alongside the victims of sniper Charles Whitman’s UT Tower massacre on that hot August morning in 1966.” – Metro, 01/19/2017
PATERSON
“Ever since his 1984 breakthrough Stranger Than Paradise, Jim Jarmusch has been finding transcendence in stasis and Paterson is nothing if not a movie about the wonders of routine. It’s broken down over a week so the days themselves become like stanzas in a poem, with repeated shots and locations becoming his visual rhyme-scheme.” – WBUR’s The ARTery, 01/18/2017
20TH CENTURY WOMEN
20TH CENTURY WOMEN * * *
Starring Annette Bening, Elle Fanning, Greta Gerwig, Lucas Jade Zumann and Billy Crudup. Written and directed by Mike Mills.
SPLICED PERSONALITY 