Thelma, Norway’s submission for this year’s Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, falls prey to a common pitfall of the horror and sci-fi genres: it withholds basic information to drum up artificial suspense.
Category: Remember All the Movies, Terry, We’d Go See
2017 Rewind: RISK (Laura Poitras)
Potentially my hottest take of 2017: Laura Poitras’ Academy Award-winning Citzenfour from 2014 is worse than Risk, her follow-up released earlier this year.
THE BREADWINNER (Nora Twomey)
The Breadwinner is the rare sort of animated movie whose story could feasibly translate to the realm of live action.
2017 Rewind: ABACUS: SMALL ENOUGH TO JAIL (Steve James)
Even the worst documentaries tend to be able to maintain an audience’s attention because most chronicle interesting stories; why would someone go through the trouble of making one about a boring subject (this generalization of course precludes navel-gazing personal autobiographies). As such, when evaluating them, I try to focus more on the strength of the storytelling instead of the strength of the story.
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MY FRIEND DAHMER (Marc Meyers)
Given the recent rise in far-right movements across the western World — Trump in America, Brexit and Theresa May in Britain, anti-Merkel forces in Germany — many left-leaning audiences seem to want art to compensate for the perceived immorality around them.
NOVITIATE (Margaret Betts)
Dear Lord Novitiate is a bore.
2017 Rewind: CHASING CORAL (Jeff Orlowski)
As Academy Awards season commences, I’ll be revisiting possible contenders from the past year that I’ve missed. Since the Oscars recently announced the 15 shortlisted full-length documentaries – five of which will eventually be formally nominated – I’m beginning by catching up with those.
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MURDERers’ Row ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS
Like a true disciple of Shakespeare, Kenneth Branagh understands the crucial importance of casting every role in an ensemble with top-tier talent.
The Worst of the Bests
Write All Nite will not be conforming to the recent trend of every outlet in the world releasing their “Top 10 ____ of 2017” lists IN EARLY DECEMBER, for a variety of reasons.
BPM (BEATS PER MINUTE): A Fictional Document of Truth
One of my favorite sounds to hear in a theater after a movie ends is no sound at all. This silence usually marks a truly special shared experience, like a hushed reverence.
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