Review: Ben is Back

by Eric Blume

In writer-director Peter Hedges’ new film Ben is Back, Julia Roberts and Lucas Hedges perform a heart-rending duet.  They’re so locked into their characters, with their lived-in emotions so close to the skin, that they make the film soar.

Young Ben (Hedges) returns home for Christmas, 77 days clean from sober living from his drug addiction, to the joy and hope of his mom (Roberts), and the skepticism of his family.  While the plot is straightforward, Peter Hedges takes the peace out of the domestic setting in the second half of the film, where he has his two main characters on the road facing various elements from Ben’s past...

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Review: Vox Lux

by Chris Feil

Vox Lux opens with visceral brief violence and closes with extended musical euphoria that it keeps out of our reach. The sophomore feature of Brady Corbet, the film is most defined by its refusal to allow us to access it even as it monolithically announces its themes. It feels at once like someone screaming into the abyss of an empty stadium with locked doors. But somehow it keeps us banging on its doors that never budge.

The film follows the birth and would-be rebirth of superstar Celeste, played separately in two acts by Raffey Cassidy and Natalie Portman...

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Review: Mary Queen of Scots

by Murtada Elfadl

The story is familiar. We’ve seen it many times on both film and TV. The queens are familiar. We’ve seen them being embodied by many actresses we love and admire. Now it’s time for Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie to play Mary and Elizabeth I in Mary, Queen of Scots. Familiarity can breed contempt. We’ve seen this before so why do we need another version? But familiarity can also help us absorb a story when we know the beats of its narrative. We can take in the performances, the costumes, the setting and not worry about following the plot. Director Josie Rourke and screenwriter Beau Willimon understand that they need to freshen up the material, give it a new spin. And so they try.

Their story concentrates squarely on Mary and starts with her return to Scotland from exile in France, threatening Elizabeth’s reign because of her strong claim to the crown with Elizabeth being unwed and childless...

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Review: Write When You Get Work

by Murtada Elfadl

For a film that starts with Finn Wittrock taking his shirt off, Write When You Get Work disappoints. He plays a New York City drifter working odd jobs and living off petty crime schemes. His ex (Rachel Keller) has left that life behind after the break-up and is now trying to make it working at a prestigious school in the wealthy Upper East Side. Of course their worlds collide as he tries another get-rich scheme that involves one of the parents of the kids in her school (Emily Mortimer)...

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Doc Corner: Movie Stars - Fonda, Kael and Dukakis

by Glenn Dunks

DOC NYC is still going in New York, running until this Thursday the 15th. We’re looking at just a very small selection of films screening at the festival including these today based around three iconic names in American cinema: film critic Pauline Kael, and Oscar-winning actors Jane Fonda and Olympia Dukakis.

WHAT SHE SAID: THE ART OF PAULINE KAEL
I noted on social media as I sat down to watch my screener of Rob Garver’s biography that there were certainly worse ways to spend one’s Sunday evening than surrounded by the words of the late, great Pauline Kael and an abundance of film clips. Sometimes a film can give you exactly what you ask for and that’s exactly what I received from What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael about the much loved (and loathed) film critic...

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