Melissa McCarthy re-teams with director Theodore Melfi and actor Chris O’Dowd to once again show her dramatic chops, but while “The Starling” attempts to soar and be poignant, the script grounds the film very quickly.
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Ben Foster gives a transformative performance that should garner the actor his first Oscar nomination in Barry Levinson’s ‘The Survivor’, a career highlight for the veteran director that shows the Holocaust from a different perspective while looking to the future.
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The appeal of ‘All My Puny Sorrows’ comes not necessarily from the heavy subject matter, but the novel and stimulating manner in which it presents the story. The film is packed with stellar performances, lead by Alison Pill, and captained by a director who always seems to get ‘stellar’ out of his actors.
Read More!['Belfast' Review: Kenneth Branagh Tells His Most Personal Story in His Most Poignant Film [TIFF 21]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5816af52e6f2e15be207b0cd/1632253848731-0XPPFAR1YJUA80OELKC6/TIFF-2021-Belfast-Publicity-H-2021.jpg)
While Kenneth Branagh may only make a handful of artistic choices as director, every ounce of thoughtfulness went into the script of ‘Belfast’, and that remains enough. The film is shot in an intimate and small manner, the conflict is shrunk down, and eventually it’s all slow cooked into more delicious morsels about morality and love.
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‘The Power of the Dog’ is Jane Campion’s first film in 12 years, since the release of 2009’s ‘Bright Star’, and tells the story of Phil Burbank (Cumberbatch), who runs a cattle ranch with his brother George (Jesse Plemons). Cumberbatch and Plemons are a phenomenon on screen, but its uneven script quickly degrades the film into a sappy melodrama.
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‘The Card Counter’ is a film that gambles, but doesn’t quite play a winning hand. Imagine the illegitimate love child of ‘Rounders’, ‘Drive’ and ‘The Big Short’. Then imagine that it was haphazardly executed with a weak script and had no clear direction or intention. That’s ‘The Card Counter’.
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“Stowaway” looks pretty and boasts a formidable cast, but its story feels much hollower than writer-director Joe Penna wants it to be.
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Bob Odenkirk proves himself capable of being the next big action hero in “Nobody”, where his fighting prowess helps the film’s excellent action sequences overcome its flat story.
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“Cherry”, the newest film from the Russo brothers, is a coming-of-age odyssey exploring one man’s descent into addiction and destruction. Tom Holland’s performance electrifies an otherwise uneven viewing experience.
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The first words spoken in “Supernova” are a lovely little threat: “We’re not going back, you know.”
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It might be contentious among critics, and certainly targets a particular kind of film lover as its audience, but “Malcolm & Marie” is an absolute godsend of a film that demands viewing when it arrives on Netflix this Friday.
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A Jay-Z-infused satire of the Indian caste system? We never thought we’d see it, until Netflix gave us “The White Tiger”.
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While Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom - like the play that inspired it - doesn’t quite capitalize on its opportunity for potent social commentary, this adaptation features incredible performances all around, including a career-best final turn from the late, great Chadwick Boseman that is sure to run as an Oscars favorite.
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Setting aside all of its eyesore-inducing cinematography and wasted cast, cinema’s most blatant attempt yet to capitalize on COVID-19, an action-infused romance set in a nightmare scenario imagined future, can be boiled down to one word: offensive.
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After spending the past few years in the Supporting Role category, Riz Ahmed’s latest performance in Amazon Prime Video “Sound of Metal” pushes him to the Lead and proves, he’s worth the part.
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Absent for the last six years, director and auteur, David Fincher returns with an elegant, cynical look at old-school Hollywood and the parallels to today.
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Though suffering from some typical romantic cliches, the film is strong in its emotional center and reels the audience in with promises of hope and faith.
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Under the intricately crafted script and blessing of the story’s original playwright, the late Matt Crowley, “The Boys in the Band” magnifies the lives of eight gay men (and one “straight” one) inside a flaming powder keg of a birthday party.
Read More!['Pieces of a Woman' Review: Vanessa Kirby Captivates In This Devastating Portrait Of Grief And Loss [TIFF 2020]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5816af52e6f2e15be207b0cd/1600467277267-46B1BTXV4YP1EKU41R10/MV5BYzFlNTIxNDAtNTE0NS00OWJlLWI4OGItMTJjZjRlZDYwODQzXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyODQ3NTUyMDk%40._V1_.jpg)
“Pieces of a Woman” is not for the faint of heart; it’s a truly heartbreaking, intimate, unflinching, and harrowing look at one woman’s unimaginable loss and her process to recovery.
Read More!['Nomadland' Review: An Authentic, Heartfelt Piece of Americana [TIFF 2020]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5816af52e6f2e15be207b0cd/1600456330373-2YMDPRALFON38KFAAQWT/nomadland-2.jpeg)
Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland”, based on the novel by Jessica Bruder is the story of a forgotten part of the Boomer generation who has to keep moving to work, and working to live.
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