‘Uncut Gems’ Is an Embarrassment of Riches
Adam Sandler’s career-defining performance in the Safdie Brothers’ Uncut Gems is a gritty thrill ride into the psyche of an adrenaline junky.
a24 films
In ‘Uncut Gems’ Adam Sandler’s Howard Ratner Is on the Brink of Everything, or Nothing
The Safdie Brothers' nervy ball of tension, #PMPick Uncut Gems, sends a hustler blasting recklessly through a city where everybody is on the make.
‘The Lighthouse’ Finds Lynchian Beauty in the Terror of Pitiless Nature
In Robert Eggers' brutal but lyrical 19th century horror show, The Lighthouse, there is a lot of David Lynch in the looming soundtrack and the steam-powered, proto-industrial feel in the scenes of tending the lighthouse machinery.
The Brilliant ‘Midsommar’ Is a Haunting Reflection on Love’s Perversity
Director Ari Aster's uncompromising artistic vision in Midsommar creates a singular viewing experience of horror, beauty, and bafflement.
Gentrification Blues: Joe Talbot and Jimmie Fails on ‘The Last Black Man in San Francisco’
Joe Talbot and Jimmie Fails talk about their tribute to the old San Francisco -- before tech moved in -- in their moving feature debut, The Last Black Man in San Francisco.
Joanna Hogg’s ‘The Souvenir’ Is a Defiantly Autobiographical Domestic Drama
Director Joanna Hogg sheds nuanced light on a dysfunctional relationship similar to one of her own in The Souvenir.
Claire Denis Goes for Broke with Hallucinatory Space Thriller, ‘High Life’
High Life is more a series of tensions and breaking points than it is a traditionally satisfying space narrative, but Denis's allegiance to directors like Tarkovsky and Kubrick offers an intriguing view of humanity at the gates of the final frontier.
Claire Denis’s Splendid ‘High Life’ Engages and Repulses
In existential nightmare, High Life, Claire Denis explores the darkest intersection between outer space and the human psyche.
Julianne Moore Anchors Sebastián Lelio’s Striking ‘Gloria Bell’
Sebastián Lelio's fascination with womanhood and desire have culminated in Gloria Bell, with actor Julianne Moore tailor-made to its particular kind of searching melancholy.
Social Media and Identity Formation in Bo Burnham’s Film, ‘Eighth Grade’
Rather than moralize, critique, or make grandiose statements about "digital natives", writer-director-wunderkind Bo Burnham brilliantly visualizes what it means to live in a world in which social media is omnipresent.
‘Eighth Grade’ and the Act of Disappearing in Plain Sight, Online
Bo Burnham's big-hearted, emotional tidal wave of a movie shows how the look-at-me / leave-me-alone contradictions of adolescence, powered by social media, are cranked up to 11.
Cinema Is Anti-Spiritual: Interview with ‘First Reformed’ Director Paul Schrader
First Reformed may explore the edges of faith but director Paul Schrader believes that what moves us in cinema is no mystery: it's simply "action and empathy".