Review: "Nightmare Alley" only in theaters

by Matt St Clair

Nightmare Alley, Guillermo del Toro’s anticipated follow-up to The Shape of Water, is quite a risk for the Oscar-winning auteur. Del Toro ditches the phantasmic monsters he’s known for in favor of human monstrosity, the beasts within all of us that drive our carnal needs. As with the original 1947 noir, Nightmare Alley is an exemplary exercise on the folly of man and what happens when the line between man and beast becomes blurred. 

The main anti-hero who toes that line is Stan Carlisle (Bradley Cooper), a carny with a knack for manipulating people. His subjects include fellow carny and eventual love interest/accomplice Molly Cahill (Rooney Mara), Paul Krumbein (David Strathairn) and his fortune teller wife Zeena (Toni Collette), and a wealthy fearsome widower Ezra Grindle (Richard Jenkins). Cooper's piercing eyes and bewildering smile make him a perfect casting fit for the manipulative con man. He is a man of few words which is just as well; the words when they come are lies and deceit. It is in Cooper’s expressive face where we see Stan’s constant fear of his troubled past resurfacing...

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Streaming Review: Sandra Bullock in "Unforgivable"

Please welcome new contributor Catherine Springer

Sandra Bullock has something to prove. No matter how beloved she may be as a performer, she’s never really been taken seriously as a dramatic actress. Her Best Actress Oscar win for The Blind Side (2009) is widely considered to be one of the weakest, as many feel she won more as a nod to her popularity and successful career than for the performance itself. Bullock has always had a healthy perspective on herself and her career, and has taken all the criticism in stride. And yet, there must be a place deep inside that wants to prove to the world that she deserves her Oscar, and that she is so much more than the funny, affable girl next door. 

Bullock’s starring role in Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity (2013) went some of the way to proving she is more than the feel-good funny girl. But the question still remained: can Sandra Bullock deliver in a dramatic role, with no CGI or alien buffers? She's never truly played an unlikeable character, either. Can she change her brand this late in her career, and prove she can deliver in a serious and not loveable role?

The new Netflix film, The Unforgivable, proves the answer is an unequivocal yes. Unfortunately, few may hear that answer because anything she’s doing in this film that’s right is offset by everything else that is so, so wrong...

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Streaming Review: Apple TV+ 'Swan Song'

By Ben Miller

Delicate and sentimental, Benjamin Cleary's Swan Song gives two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali a showcase performance in this adult drama.  Featuring strong supporting performances and a cleanly futuristic setting, the film is an easy watch - just make sure to have the tissues ready...

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"Young Adult" at 10

by Mark Brinkerhoff

Where were you when you first saw—hell, even learned about—2011’s Young Adult? For me, it was at the Angelika, an arresting poster of a scowling Charlize Theron with the perfectly judged tagline:

“Everyone gets old. Not everyone grows up.”

Boy, if that ain’t the truth...

Young Adult opened nationwide on this day a full decade ago (!!!) to rather muted buzz but with a pedigree that couldn’t be denied: Conceived by the brilliant, Oscar-winning screenwriter, Diablo Cody (on the heels of her cult-masterwork, Jennifer’s Body), and helmed by Jason Reitman, following up his Oscar-nominated Up in the Air while re-teaming with Cody after their similarly lauded Juno, Young Adult managed to assemble an incredibly rich ensemble of under-sung or underrated character actors—yes, including those inhabiting the body (and careers) of movie stars (Theron and Patrick Wilson)...

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FYC: "Flee" in Best Sound

by Chris James

Sound can be more visceral than sight when recalling painful moments from the past.Flee is a unicorn of a film, a hybrid of so many styles of storytelling. In the most basic of terms, it’s a first person documentary feature as Amin recounts his journey from Afghanistan to Denmark. The use of animation in telling Amin’s story serves a few different purposes. On a social responsibility level, animating the entire film helps protect the subject and their family. From a stylistic perspective, the animation draws us into Amin’s crisp memories, only to have the traumatic flight from Afghanistan be painted with broader, more dramatic strokes. It’s as if Amin’s memory is protecting him from the details. Come the time of Oscar nominations, it could be the first film nominated for International Feature, Documentary Feature and Animated Feature. Matt St. Clair has already done a great job lobbying for it in Best Picture, which would be richly deserved. 

There is one other category that the Academy should make sure to consider Flee in - Best Sound. 

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