Cinema

Celine Song’s Debut Among Best Films of 2023

July 18th, 2023

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

Writer-director Celine Song’s feature debut “Past Lives” premiered to much acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival in January.

Beautifully photographed by Shabier Kirchner on 35mm film, the thoughtful and contemplative drama might be as destined for award season accolades as the star-crossed childhood sweethearts are for paths that twine together and grow apart over the course of the near quarter-century explored in the narrative.

Song’s…

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​Gelb’s ‘Stan Lee’ Profiles the Marvel Legend

July 2nd, 2023

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

An online search for articles about David Gelb’s documentary “Stan Lee” returns a lengthy list of headlines summarizing what has been, for many years, the story about the story. Even many non-fans know that the recognizable face of Marvel Comics was an opportunist and self-promoter, often reluctant to share the proper amount of creative credit with giants like Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. But Lee’s influence on the industry he helped build is…

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​‘Pretty Baby’: Wilson Profiles Shields

June 25th, 2023

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

Filmmaker Lana Wilson’s “Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields” uses two parts (now on Hulu following a world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival) to explore the career of its title subject, the well-known model, actor, performer and celebrity.

Life in the spotlight began for Shields when her mother Teri supposedly announced – just five days after her daughter was born – that she intended to guide the child into show business. True to her word,…

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​Anderson’s Infinite Possibilities: ‘Asteroid City’

June 19th, 2023

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

A vibrant troupe including several precocious brainiacs, their parents, military personnel, astrophysicists, singing cowboys, a grieving widower, a movie star, and a trio of tiny witches and/or vampires-in-training converges on Asteroid City (population 87) for the 1955 Junior Stargazer Convention in Wes Anderson’s gorgeous new feature. As quintessentially Andersonian as any of his previous movies, “Asteroid City” gracefully combines the…

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​Sundance Winner ‘A Thousand and One’ Marks Vital Debut for Rockwell

June 13th, 2023

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize Winner “A Thousand and One” is a vital New York story that unfolds over the course of a decade. And even though its spot-on period detail situates the drama in the place Toni Morrison called “the last true city,” the emotional weight of a mother’s love for a child is universal.

The movie’s history-by-suggestion covers the mayoral tenure of Rudy Giuliani and stretches to include an audio excerpt of…

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​Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Is a Masterwork of Animation

June 4th, 2023

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

Until I saw “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” I really thought the cinematic expression of the multiverse concept had peaked with the triumphant Best Picture Academy Award for “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” a movie that catapults us – as I wrote in my original review – “onto the tracks of a rollercoaster careening through a dizzying set of alternative (sur)realities.”

But the new superhero film, which continues the onscreen…

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‘You Hurt My Feelings’: Holofcener and Louis-Dreyfus Meet Again

May 28th, 2023

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

Writer-director Nicole Holofcener leans in – all the way in – to the sturdy milieu of the well-heeled, narcissist-inhabited, New York-based comedy landscape dominated for so many decades by the now fading/faded Woody Allen.

A24 presents Holofcener’s “You Hurt My Feelings” as a May theatrical release following its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.

In the film, protagonist Beth (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is a moderately successful…

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​B.C. Confidential: Ryan White Talks with Anderson in ‘Pamela: A Love Story’

May 15th, 2023

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

Filmmaker Ryan White’s documentary “Pamela: A Love Story” (stylized onscreen as “Pamela, a Love Story”) serves as a companion piece to the contemporaneously published memoir “Love, Pamela.” Both artifacts allow model and actor Pamela Anderson the opportunity to reshape many aspects of the media-derived narrative of her once chaotic life.

The performer rocketed to international superstardom in the 1990s on the sandy and sun-soaked beaches…

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​Fremon Craig Brings Blume Classic to the Big Screen

May 8th, 2023

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

‘Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret.’

Although not quite as good as feature directorial debut “The Edge of Seventeen,” Kelly Fremon Craig’s adaptation of Judy Blume’s classic 1970 novel makes for an admirable and satisfying big screen companion piece. Veteran kid actor Abby Ryder Fortson leads an ensemble that includes Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates, and Benny Safdie as the core members of the Simon family. While Blume’s frank address…

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​Pardo and Wolchok Collaborate With the Author on ‘Judy Blume Forever’

April 30th, 2023

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

Davina Pardo and Leah Wolchok’s “Judy Blume Forever” debuted at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival in January and landed on Prime Video just ahead of the theatrical release this week of Kelly Fremon Craig’s highly anticipated adaptation of “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.”

The one-two punch lands as Republican-controlled states ramp up legislative attacks on trans rights, gender-affirming care, abortion access, and – in a return to…

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