Cinema

​Ortega is an apt pupil in “Miller’s Girl”

February 5th, 2024

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

Following a world premiere at the Palm Springs Film Festival, Jade Halley Bartlett’s feature debut as writer-director received a January theatrical release via Lionsgate. Despite the provocative subject matter and the presence of Jenna Ortega in the leading role, the absolutely dismal box office returns and mixed reviews of “Miller’s Girl” suggest the movie will soon be mostly forgotten. But for those willing to embrace the hothouse tone of…

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Stationary: Cowperthwait’s “I.S.S.” Could Use More Gravity

January 30th, 2024

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

Science fiction thriller “I.S.S.” managed a woeful seventh place at the box office over its opening weekend, collecting $3 million dollars from a 2,500+ theater release. To make matters worse, negative word-of-mouth will shut down any potential rebound. A small handful of critics have praised director Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s B-movie sensibilities, but the cumulative impact of the “Blackfish” documentarian’s movie — essentially left for…

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Get In, Loser: “Mean Girls” Musical Expands the Brand

January 22nd, 2024

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

The new “Mean Girls” movie, based on the Broadway musical that was in turn inspired by the 2004 film directed by Mark Waters, originated with Rosalind Wiseman’s 2002 book “Queen Bees and Wannabes.” All three adaptations were written by Tina Fey, who reprises her onscreen role as math teacher Ms. Norbury. Along with an avalanche of puff pieces and side-by-side comparisons debating the relative merits of the various incarnations, publicity…

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​Triet Dissects the Life and Death of a Marriage in “Anatomy of a Fall”

January 18th, 2024

Now playing at the Fargo Theatre.

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

Palme d’Or recipient “Anatomy of a Fall” is now enjoying an award-season victory tour, recently picking up Golden Globe wins for both screenplay and foreign language film as well as the National Board of Review’s prize for Best International Film. Oscar nominations should be forthcoming. Filmmaker Justine Triet, who wrote the script with partner and collaborator Arthur Harari, expertly uses the framework of…

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‘How to Have Sex:’ Molly Manning Walker’s Provocatively-Titled Debut Feature Arrives

January 18th, 2024

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

The rough UK equivalent of America’s hedonistic spring break rite of passage, the annual descent of sun-seeking young people on tourist-friendly coastal resorts in Greece, Spain, and other spots following stressful academic exams conjures up youthquake fantasies and parental nightmares in equal measure. The provocative title of filmmaker Molly Manning Walker’s feature directorial debut “How to Have Sex” partially obscures the layered meanings…

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Oren’s Horse Sense: The Charms of ‘Piaffe’

January 11th, 2024

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

  The combination of biographical information and artist statement found under the “about” tab at Ann Oren’s website partly reads, “By dissolving distinctions between plant, animal and human, she asks what it is to be human in an ecosystem immersed in digital culture. Questions about intimacy and identity keep emerging through various audio-visual approaches, while exploring gender, fictosexuality, animality, interspecies and other hybrid…

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She’s Alive: Stone and Lanthimos Bring ‘Poor Things’ to Life

December 22nd, 2023

By Greg Carlson 

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

In a movie year that brought to life an iconic plastic fashion doll and a theoretical physicist who ushered in the Atomic Age, there was no shortage of memorable characters.

But for my money, the crown for the most remarkable cinematic creation of 2023 sits atop the head of reanimated adventurer Bella Baxter. Brought to life (after death) by Emma…

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Garden of Evil: Jonathan Glazer Goes to ‘The Zone of Interest’

December 18th, 2023

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

Loosely based on the 2014 novel by Martin Amis, Jonathan Glazer’s adaptation of “The Zone of Interest” makes a perfect visual companion to the great political thinker Hannah Arendt’s most quoted concept.

Introduced in her 1961 work for “The New Yorker” and then incorporated into the title of the 1963 book “Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil,” Arendt’s argument that the Nazi bureaucrat fulfilled his duties…

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Stealing Time: Moreno’s ‘The Delinquents’

December 10th, 2023

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

Bubbling up on multiple 2023 best-of lists and qualified for a possible Oscar nomination as Argentina’s international feature entry (prior to the eventual finalists, the fifteen shortlisted titles will be announced on December 21, 2023), Rodrigo Moreno’s excellent “The Delinquents” is a thoroughly satisfying slice of contemplative slow cinema.

A simmering heist movie (in the loosest sense), the film uses the basic premise of an inside job as…

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Green Checks In to ‘The Royal Hotel’

December 3rd, 2023

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

Australian filmmaker Kitty Green’s brilliant nonfiction movies, including the superb “Casting JonBenet,” laid the groundwork for the director’s recent interest in narrative features.

In “The Royal Hotel,” Green reteams with Julia Garner (who starred in Green’s “The Assistant”) for another searing depiction of the ways in which women must carefully navigate a world filled with what one character almost offhandedly refers to as…

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