Sundance: "Strawberry Mansion" review

by Jason Adams

"Out of my hair and into my home, to enter you must lick the ice cream cone," is how one character greets another in the trippy and lovingly strange Strawberry Mansion from writer-directors Kentucker Audley and Albert Birney. That invitation gives y'all your gist -- if you wanna enter a movie that will bestow such a whimsical greeting upon you at the door then you're probably in the right place. And it only gets weirder once you've come in. It's up to you whether you're willing to let the Strawberry wash over you. Me, I was mostly tickled. Pinkish, you know...

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Yes No Maybe So: "Godzilla v Kong"

Tony here. I’m a forever defendor of Gareth Edwards’ 2014 Godzilla picture. It’s an atmospheric, artful take on a big, blustery blockbuster featuring giant monsters. The acting is better than it has any right to be and there are images and wholesale sequences which evoke the best of Spielberg; Edwards sought to restore mystery and majesty to the genre. After Edwards’ film ONLY made $530 million worldwide, Warner Bros would return to the brainless goofiness of old (think the 1997 Godzilla) with Kong: Skull Island and Godzilla: King of the Monsters, seeking out higher dollars by doubling down on dumbing it down.

Despite interesting directors at the helm, they’re both mildly entertaining if overwrought examples of studio factory filmmaking, and Godzilla v Kong looks to continue this trend based on its trailer, a piece of unintentional hilarity...

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Interview: Bao Nguyen on "Be Water" and the cultural resonance of Bruce Lee

by Nathaniel R

Bao Nguyen's Be Water premiered on ESPN this past summer and has touched a lot of people since then. It's a lovely meditation on Bruce Lee's life, his relationships to both the East and the West, and the meaning of his legacy and activism. Be Water is one of 238 films eligible for the Oscar this year in Best Documentary Feature. We were thrilled to sit down with Bao Nguyen, over Zoom of course, to discuss his picture and the man and myth that is Bruce Lee.

Be Water was five years in the making, though things sped up considerably once ESPN signed on two years or so ago. Originally Be Water was supposed to come out around Bruce Lee's 80th birthday this past November but demand was so great for new movies during quarantine that the release was moved up to June. Nyugen, had a strange year (didn't we all!) but one recurring joy was hearing from and seeing photos of multigenerational families watching the film together. He describes the film as "connective tissue" and the parents and kids and grandparents could then discuss what Bruce Lee meant to them...

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Showbiz History: Shrinking Women, Sundance Hits, and City Lights

7 random things that happened on this day, January 30th, in showbiz history

1931 City Lights premieres in Los Angeles. Albert Einstein, pictured above with Chaplin, was the guest of honor. It was a silent film released well past the point when that was fashionable (sound took over very quickly in one of Hollywood's most titanic upheavals) but it proved a success in theaters...

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Sundance: Rita Moreno in the Spotlight

By Abe Friedtanzer 

In a week where we’ve lost both Cicely Tyson and Cloris Leachman, it feels like the right time to celebrate trailblazing actresses who are still earning awards love well into their eighties and nineties. On tap at Sundance in the U.S. Documentary Competition section is Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It. This exploration of her life and the profound influence she has had on so many is a rich, endearing journey that constitutes a truly delightful and energizing look at a remarkable actress who just last week earned her fourth consecutive Critics Choice nomination at the age of eighty-nine.

This film should work equally well for those intimately familiar with much of Moreno’s resumé as well as those who know her only from her signature film role that won her an Oscar, 1961’s West Side Story, or from the great TV work she’s still doing on the recently-wrapped One Day at a Time...

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