Cinema

Hinds and Manville take a ‘Midwinter Break’

February 23rd, 2026

By Greg Carlson

In what turns out to be a safe, sedate and fairly dusty two-hander, novelist Bernard MacLaverty adapts his own 2017 book “Midwinter Break” with co-screenwriter Nick Payne. Experienced theatre director and first-time feature filmmaker Polly Findlay guides veteran talents Ciarán Hinds and Lesley Manville in their roles as Gerry and Stella, a long-married couple whose crumbling union reaches a critical point during an Amsterdam vacation. Admirers of MacLaverty’s…

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​Cheers to 100 years of the Fargo Theatre

February 16th, 2026

By Sabrina Hornung


There's a certain kind of magic to the Fargo Theatre. It’s a place to escape to for the small fee of the price of admission. It's a place of shared communal joy (or any other kind of shared emotion for that matter), which almost feels rare these days, in the era of “Netflix and chill.”

There’s a rich history that's housed within those theatre walls. It managed to persist through the vaudeville era, onto the silent era, then evolved to accommodate the…

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​Love and hate: Fennell goes to ‘Wuthering Heights’

February 16th, 2026

By Greg Carlson

Literature purists who will judge Emerald Fennell’s decadent, gorgeous, horny and high-calorie interpretation of “Wuthering Heights” on the basis of its fidelity to the 1847 novel by Emily Brontë are certainly not the principal demographic sought by the new movie’s exhibitor. And anyone who admired the audacity of the Academy Award-winning filmmaker’s previous two features — “Promising Young Woman” in 2020 and “Saltburn” in 2023 — could have guessed…

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Davis spends ‘The Best Summer’ with Beastie Boys and friends

February 9th, 2026

By Greg Carlson

For the Generation X members obsessed with the incredible 90s music scene that gave us everything from the DIY exuberance of riot grrrl founding mothers Bikini Kill, to the noisy NYC no wave of Sonic Youth, to the evolutionary enlightenment transforming the Beastie Boys from bratty hip-hop pranksters to socially conscious elder statesmen, filmmaker Tamra Davis has something special in store for us. Not a lot of good came from the 2025 Palisades Fire, but one silver…

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​Lowthorpe adapts popular memoir ‘H Is for Hawk’

February 4th, 2026

By Greg Carlson

A little more than a decade following the publication of the popular Helen Macdonald memoir upon which it is based, a feature film version of “H Is for Hawk” starring Claire Foy has been theatrically released in the United States following a 2025 world premiere at Telluride. Directed by Philippa Lowthorpe from a screenplay she co-wrote with “Room” novelist Emma Donoghue in collaboration with Macdonald, the movie joins the class of thoughtful narratives focused on…

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​DaCosta visits ‘The Bone Temple’

January 26th, 2026

By Greg Carlson

The versatile Nia DaCosta follows her underseen and underappreciated “Hedda” (one of my 2025 favorites) with the first female-helmed entry in the 28 Days/Weeks/Years Later series, a fascinating and grisly memento mori called “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.” Featuring a mesmerizing performance by an all-in Ralph Fiennes, reprising his role as Dr. Ian Kelson, DaCosta’s violent, vicious, and bloody chapter also brims with intelligence, visual beauty and even a…

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​Reichardt pulls a heist: ‘The Mastermind’

January 19th, 2026

By Greg Carlson


There is a great scene in the middle of Kelly Reichardt’s excellent movie “The Mastermind” when protagonist James Blaine Mooney (Josh O’Connor) is chastised by criminally-connected wheelman Jerry (the wonderful Matthew Maher), who dresses down the would-be art thief for his gross incompetence and naivete. J.B., whose goose by now is seemingly cooked, sulks in the back seat while Jerry chuckles at all the mistakes that led his passenger to failure. The perpetually…

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​Naomi Jaye directs Britt Lower in ‘Darkest Miriam’

January 12th, 2026

By Greg Carlson


Writer-director Naomi Jaye adapts fellow Canadian Martha Baillie’s 2009 novel “The Incident Report” as a potent and introspective character study. Retitled “Darkest Miriam,” Jaye’s movie stars Britt Lower as a Toronto librarian quietly observing a parade of quirky patrons whose behavior occasionally necessitates the filing of official workplace memos. Bibliophiles and public library supporters might represent some of the likeliest potential fans of the…

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​Fastvold marks the agony and the ecstasy of ‘The Testament of Ann Lee’

January 5th, 2026

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

Director Mona Fastvold’s “The Testament of Ann Lee” frequently writhes and gesticulates with a hypnotizing mysticism that mirrors the fervor of its title character. At its absolute best when reaching for the strange and inexplicable, the movie — stunningly photographed by William Rexer — also shrinks and retreats when focused on the more basic historical outlines of the early development of the Shaker faith in the northwest of England and then…

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​Making the Magazine: Curry Subscribes to ‘The New Yorker at 100’

December 29th, 2025

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

Available on Netflix, Marshall Curry’s “The New Yorker at 100” takes the measure of the venerable publication as a compact primer aiming to please longtime readers and potential new converts. The Oscar-winning filmmaker toggles between key historical moments and the preparation of the magazine’s centennial issue, following several personalities devoted to the care and keeping of the special recipe that has enthralled us decade after decade.…

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