Review: The Little Things

by Matt St Clair

A movie like The Little Things probably would’ve done very well in the 90’s. A time when crime thrillers such as Se7en, and another Denzel Washington starrer The Pelican Brief, could thrive financially and when actors rather than superheroes were bonafide box office draws. Given how Denzel is one of the few A-listers left who can open a movie on his name alone, The Little Things might've made a decent profit in a pre-COVID world. Yet, given the film’s poor and dated quality, it would’ve been best to let it live in the past.

Once Kern County Deputy Sheriff Joe Deacon (Denzel Washington) teams with LA detective Jim Baxter (Rami Malek) to help him solve a string of serial killings...

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Sundance: "Human Factors" review

by Jason Adams

How weird are those first moments when we realize our parents are people? Not super-humans, not saints, not actually the best baker of cakes or baseball player in the world — when the freckles on their fingers come into focus; the scabs and flabby knees. Mom stares at the wall for too long; Dad knee shakes when he’s trapped in thought. This disillusionment of experience, of aging, rides hand in hand with the becoming of our own selves — their armor dissolves down in order to make us stand stronger, separate.

There is an inciting incident at the near-start of Ronny Trocker’s strategically incisive Human Factors that seems to set the white upper-middle-class family unit at its center spinning of their axis...

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Sundance Opening Night: CODA

By Abe Friedtanzer

 

It’s never the biggest movies that premiere on opening night of the Sundance Film Festival, but they’re always worth looking at carefully since they do set the tone for what comes next. I reviewed the first films I saw in 2020 and 2019 for this site, and they were both among the best films I saw each year – Summertime, director Carlos López Estrada’s follow-up to another Sundance opening night premiere, Blindspotting, coming out sometime this summer, and the Alex Gibney documentary The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, which ended up debuting on HBO.

That impressive club adds a new member this year in the form of CODA. I didn’t realize until I finished watching the film that its title is an acronym for Child of Deaf Adults...

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Streaming Review: "Palmer" (Apple TV+)

by Christopher James

Justin Timberlake headlines the newest Apple TV+ film, "Palmer."When a movie has its heart in the right place, you can forgive a lot of things. Palmer, the latest Apple TV+ movie, is as saccharine as they come. It never aims to surprise, instead it just wants to make your heart soar and tear ducts swell. On both counts, it achieves its goal.

The film stars Justin Timberlake as Eddie Palmer, a former football star who spent the last twelve years of his life in prison. He gets out and lays low with his grandmother, Vivian (June Squibb giving you exactly what you expect), who often babysits her neighbor’s child, Sam (Ryder Allen). Sam’s Mom, Shelly (Juno Temple), goes on an indefinite bender, leaving Sam with Palmer and Vivian. Sam is obsessed with princesses and fairies, which often leaves him the target for schoolyard bullies. While Palmer initially bristles at Sam’s femininity, he soon becomes Sam’s protector, fighting for his right of self expression...

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Thoughts on "The Father"...

by Eric Blume

It's difficult to write reviews these days, because it feels like no film is ever actually "released", and all of us are scrambling to find what movies are even available, how they're available, if they're VOD, or on a streaming service, etc.  Sony Pictures Classics might have made a fumble mostly holding back from view director Florian Zeller's The Father, taken from his own play, starring Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman:  if more people could see it, everyone would be talking about it.

The Father is one of those Movies They Don't Make Anymore, i.e., a damn adult drama that challenges your mind and heart.  This is a film where the entire creative team treats the audience with dignity and respect, trusting that you're listening and paying attention, and they will reward you with literate ideas, high drama, and an emotional experience.  But The Father is more than just that:  the storytelling and the visual conceit of the film are surprising and demanding, and it is not a passive undertaking for the viewer...

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