Turns out two straight men in their 40s still can’t write women in their 20s and 30s. Julie starts off as a compelling character as she hops from one college major to another and one boyfriend to another. But then she settles in with Aksel, who is clearly a proxy for the director/writers, and she becomes a kind of shadow character whose main purpose is to say “I don’t know” and follow Aksel around looking lost. By this point, she…
Favorite films
Recent activity
AllRecent reviews
More-
-
Spencer 2021
With echoes of Hitchcock’s REBECCA, Larraín’s SPENCER follows three days of Princess Diana’s life as she increasingly strains against the confines of the royal family. Seamlessly shifting between dream and memory, past and present, the film asks what it would have been like for Diana—struggling with an eating disorder and depression—to be judged, watched, and dictated to by her in-laws and their “brigade” of servants. In a family where historically the only exit for unwanted wives had been death, she…
Translated from by
Popular reviews
More-
CODA 2021
If you’re into crowd-pleasing Sundance movies, CODA delivers. The powerful performances of the Deaf cast and the honesty of the script, however, make this film stand out. The use of sound throughout, the centrality of ASL, and the representation of a family isolated both by ableism and by their fearful responses to that ableism make for a story too rarely told on film. May CODA be anything but a coda to this kind of courageous, truthful storytelling.
Translated from by -
Passing 2021
Subtle and noir-ish, this masterful film adaptation of Nella Larsen’s novel follows two Black women as they reconnect and assess how they each have navigated Black identity in a racist culture. The black-and-white film shimmers with shadow and light, and images come in twos—couples, rows of trees, women friends, brothers. Irene’s desire to possess what wealthy white women have—toys from expensive stores in white neighborhoods, Black maids, the leisure and wealth to run charity galas and dress up for them—leads…
Translated from by
