Like weaker Happy Madison fare – with an excessively-lengthy runtime to boot – the humor of Ken Marino’s How to Be A Latin Lover is not rooted in the characters, who’re treated as mere pawns to facilitate stale gags.
Author: Steven Strauss
OBIT (Vanessa Gould)
Vanessa Gould’s Obit is a documentary about the oft-forgotten people who document other people’s lives: obituary writers for the New York Times.
LIKE CRAZY (Paolo Virzì)
Paolo Virzì’s Like Crazy (not to be confused with Drake Doremus’ Like Crazy from a few years back. R.I.P. Anton Yelchin) is a lighter, less substantive — and far inferior — mixture of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Thelma & Louise that too often feels like a vanity project for the goddess Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, who’s admittedly ace here (if you’re unfamiliar with her work, check out Human Capital).
A QUIET PASSION (Terence Davies)
Terence Davis’ A Quiet Passion is a quietly-radical biopic.
BORN IN CHINA (Chuan Lu)
A ludicrously rose-colored — literally in regards to the stunning visuals, figuratively in terms of the irritating narration’s writing, delivered by John Krasinski (cash that check!) — cinematic depiction of nature.
3 GENERATIONS (Gaby Dellal)
Harvey Weinstein’s Gaby Dellal’s 3 Generations is a prime example of how excessive studio meddling (in this case, by the notorious Weinstein Company) motivated by an undue obsession with box office and/or Oscar positioning often results in abominably-incomprehensible editing (there are two editors here! TWO! 2! For a 90-minute character dramedy!), sapping what could’ve been a perfectly fine, effectively-intimate human story of its natural humanity, thereby becoming more reminiscent of an ineffectively-transparent corporate product.
I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO (Raoul Peck)
Raoul Peck’s I Am Not Your Negro deserves full-throated commendation for potentially introducing the national treasure that was James Baldwin to the masses.
A DARK SONG (Liam Gavin)
While Blumhouse Productions may command most of the public’s attention, IFC Midnight keeps churning out equally, if not more noteworthy horror flicks, such as Liam Gavin’s A Dark Song.
THE PROMISE (Terry George)
I was initially going to call back to a repeated formulation of mine by describing Terry George’s The Promise as “Masterpiece Theatre (Terry’s specialty!), Armenian-Genocide-with-a-ginormous-budget edition,” but honestly, likening this schlock to a quasi-hallowed institution feels unfair to the latter.
ALL THESE SLEEPLESS NIGHTS (Michal Marczak)
Every moment of Michal Marczak’s All These Sleepless Nights (great title, by the by) is a symbolic riddle left to the audience to piece together for themselves.
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Write All Nite 