Cinema

​A Parent Suffering From Mental Illness: Dolan’s ‘You Are Not My Mother’

June 25th, 2022

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

Kate Dolan’s dark and atmospheric feature debut “You Are Not My Mother” lives at the fringes of folk horror, but the underlying family melodrama drives a story more interested in generational trauma than supernatural fairytale.

In significant ways a thematic companion piece to Natalie Erika James’s intense “Relic,” Dolan’s movie carefully locates the sweet spot between creepy Celtic lore and the equally troubling responsibilities that…

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​Talia Osteen’s Feature Debut ‘Sex Appeal’ Sends Positive Message

June 20th, 2022

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

Talia Osteen’s high-concept “Sex Appeal” is more charming than it has any right to be. Osteen’s feature directorial debut, which can be seen in the United States on Hulu, takes turns embracing formulaic conventions and subverting them.

Fortunately, some chemistry between appealing lead Mika Abdalla (as brainiac Avery Hansen-White) and Jake Short (as longtime torch-bearer Larson) offsets the predictability of both the biggest story beats and…

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​Philippe Follows the Yellow Brick Road in Fascinating ‘Lynch/Oz’

June 20th, 2022

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

Alexandre O. Philippe has steadily become one of the most devoted contemporary chroniclers of our silver screen dreamworlds. The roots of the filmmaker’s movie obsessions can be found in “The People vs. George Lucas” and “Doc of the Dead,” but the major turning point was “78/52,” in which Hitchcock’s “Psycho” – and especially the mythology, allure, and impact surrounding the shower scene – received an illuminating and…

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​A Sharp Scalpel: Cronenberg Cuts ‘Crimes of the Future’

June 5th, 2022

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

The newest David Cronenberg feature, “Crimes of the Future,” shares its name with the director’s own 1970 film, but the 2022 edition stands as a self-contained work and is not a sequel or a remake. The career-long preoccupations of the filmmaker, however, remain unmistakable. Cronenberg, whose movies are sometimes lumped in with lesser horror exercises, braids his creepy visions of the limits of the human body with a strong interest in the…

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​Okuno Watches the ‘Watcher’ in Strong Debut

May 30th, 2022

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

In Chloe Okuno’s feature debut “Watcher,” which premiered in the U.S. Dramatic Competition during the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, a frightening serial killer called the Spider haunts and stalks the neighborhoods of Bucharest.

Maika Monroe’s aspiring actress Julia has unwittingly chosen this inopportune moment to relocate to Romania with her husband Francis (Karl Glusman), who has taken a new job to advance his career. While paying direct…

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​Garland’s Beastly ‘Men’

May 23rd, 2022

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

Novelist/screenwriter/director Alex Garland has earned a sizable and devoted following over the years. His previous two feature directorial efforts, “Ex Machina” and “Annihilation,” shimmered with retro-futurist cool and pop philosophical preoccupations enhanced by the presence of appealing performers, dazzling production design, and the sharp cinematography of Rob Hardy.

“Men,” Garland’s latest, will draw the filmmaker’s faithful,…

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​Mariama Diallo’s ‘Master’ Calls Out the Horrors of Racism

May 18th, 2022

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

Writer-director Mariama Diallo’s satirical short “Hair Wolf” attracted attention at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, earning a jury award for its funny/scary social commentary. Diallo returned to the festival in 2022 with debut feature “Master,” a promising extension of her interests in the contemporary politics and historical hegemony of insidious, institutionalized white supremacy. “Master” drops the humor of “Hair Wolf” but…

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​Poehler’s ‘Lucy and Desi’ Looks at the Love and Work of Hollywood Icons

May 8th, 2022

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

Photo credit: Amazon Studios

Amy Poehler’s nonfiction feature debut as director is a solid and informative account of the inextricably linked personal and professional lives of two visionary entertainers and broadcasting pioneers. The title “Lucy and Desi” doesn’t require the last names Ball and Arnaz for viewers to instantly identify the powerful pair (or to guess why Poehler would be drawn to the story). They are still household names,…

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​Rory Kennedy’s Lacerating ‘Downfall: The Case Against Boeing’

May 1st, 2022

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmial.com

Speaking Truth to Power and Profit

Filmmaker Rory Kennedy lays out damning evidence in “Downfall: The Case Against Boeing,” which premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and is now available to stream on Netflix. Kennedy’s sobering, infuriating film is peak advocacy storytelling, a focused takedown equally interested in the human cost of corporate greed and the chain of bad decisions that led to a pair of preventable crashes. Air travel has…

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​‘Hatching’: Bergholm’s Fledgling Feature Takes Flight

April 25th, 2022

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

Finnish filmmaker Hanna Bergholm’s feature debut “Hatching” is a satisfying creature-feature delight. A coming-of-age, body horror nightmare with a sharp sense of social critique and a nose for the adolescent challenges of complicated mother-daughter relationships, Bergholm’s film critiques the contemporary obsession with self-centered personal branding and the pursuit of clicks, likes, and followers. Better yet, Bergholm commits to the…

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