How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2022) - dir. by Daniel Goldhaber This is an inspired, hungry, ambitious film about climate disaster and the people rightfully fed up with collective inaction. It's an effect thriller, in the style of a heist movie that pulls no punches and advocates for drastic action. And that's a fine … Continue reading My Week in Movies (4/9-4/15)

The Departed (2006) - dir. by Martin Scorsese Matt Damon plays a great villain. You Should Watch If: You like needle drops You Should Not Watch If: You don't like Mark Wahlberg 4.5/5 stars The Five Devils (2022) - dir. by Léa Mysius The placid unhappiness of Vicky's parents is upended by the arrival of … Continue reading My Week in Movies (4/2-4/8)

The Vanishing (1988) - dir. by George Sluizer A woman disappears at a gas station, and her partner searches for her. That's The Vanishing but this is more The Leftovers than it is a Gerard Butler revenge movie. Rex and Saskia are a happy couple on vacation when she disappears without a trace (the Dutch … Continue reading My Week in Movies (3/26-4/1)

Boston Strangler (2023) - dir. by Matt Ruskin Boston Strangler, an investigative journalism thriller, is a captivating mix of Zodiac (2007), Spotlight (2015) and She Said (2022). Released quietly and unceremoniously on Hulu two weeks ago, I can't help but wonder if this would be the best movie of the year in, let's say, 2003. … Continue reading My Week in Movies (3/19-3/25)

Fearless (1993) - dir. by Peter Weir What a strange but beautiful movie, similar in operatic tone to Lorenzo's Oil (1992). Both films are painfully earnest, though as far as I know this one isn't based on a true story. In Fearless, Jeff Bridges plays Max Klein, and we meet him as though he were … Continue reading My Week in Movies (3/12-3/18)

Across 110th Street (1972) - dir. by Barry Shear This is a grimy, ugly (in a good way) crime film. It's sweaty (literally, filmed in summer in Harlem) and ultra-violent, with bodies squirting blood like punctured ketchup packets. It's a story about two-bit criminals who get in over their heads after a robbery gone wrong. … Continue reading My Week in Movies (3/5-3/11)

Marc Maron: From Bleak to Dark (2023) - dir. by Steven Feinartz What do you say about stand up comedy, you like it or you don't. Well I like Marc Maron, and in this special he discusses, among other things, his grief at the loss of his partner (and filmmaker) Lynn Shelton back in 2020. … Continue reading My Week in Movies (2/26-3/4)

Empire of Light (2022) - dir. by Sam Mendes Empire of Light, like James Gray's Armageddon Time, is one of those prestige late in the year movies that doesn't seem to have connected with audiences or critics. They both look incredible, feature some impressive acting and tackle weighty themes. For Empire of Light, maybe it … Continue reading My Week in Movies (2/19-2/26)

Huesera: The Bone Woman (2022) - dir. by Michelle Garza Caervera If you like cracking your knuckles and the sledgehammer scene from Misery then you'll love this movie. Valeria's (Natalia Solián) pregnancy digs up old demons and trauma, symbolized by the "bone woman" who appears in her visions and dreams and serves to isolate her … Continue reading My Week in Movies (2/12-2/18)

Plane (2023) - dir. by Jean-Francois Richet I've become a huge fan of these benign Gerard Butler action movies. Like mid-tier Clint Eastwood movies, they are a bit predictable but like a good re-run, that's sort of the point (recent exception is the decidedly not feel good movie Greenland, 2020) In Plane, Butler plays a … Continue reading My Week in Movies (2/5-2/11)