Christians tend to like their redemption arcs clean and their underdogs easy to root for. But much like This is Martin Bonner, Sound of Metal presents a character who resists help. Ruben (Riz Ahmed) at first does not wish to admit that he is losing Read More …
Kirsten Johnson’s moving tribute to her dying father (Dick Johnson) and cinema itself is easily one of the best documentaries of the year. Kirsten admits she is making time capsules to remember her father, but the film also serves as a sharing of careers as she and Read More …
Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari is a quietly spiritual film that gives voice to the immigrant experience in pursuit of the American Dream. The writer-director channels deeply personal sentiments in a story of vast Biblical undertones. The central metaphor of the minari plant embodies hardy resilience Read More …
As an NPR-style radio journalist, Johnny (Joaquin Phoenix) excels at asking questions that unlock people’s hopes and fears for the future. Living in the present—and for that matter confronting the past—without the mediation of a microphone is a different story. After reconnecting with his semi-estranged Read More …
CODA is one of several films from the last year that show young people struggling to carve out or create a normal existence in the midst of circumstances that can and do overwhelm many of their peers and elders. The acronym stands for Children of Deaf Read More …
Joel Coen’s film adaptation of William Shakespeare’s 17th-century play retains the source material’s themes of the corruptive powers of greed, treachery, and unfaithfulness. It is a cautionary tale of the dangers that may come from seemingly promising whispers of glory – falsities that are revealed Read More …
The poet Denise Levertov proposed that the world might know peace if we reorganized priorities in favour of ‘long pauses’. She was calling for a practice of deep imagination. The final movie from master filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami feels like a profound example. In it, Kiarostami Read More …
Andrew Bujalski’s affecting Support the Girls is one of the more raw, honest, and insightful cinematic depictions of the American food industry and its underlying ideologies. The story centers on a day in the life of restaurant manager Lisa (Regina Hall) as she tries to manage and Read More …
It would be difficult to overstate the weirdness of this film, but the oddity of the following sentence is some indication of what you’re in for: Adapted from the writings of the French Catholic poet Charles Péguy, Bruno Dumont’s unclassifiable theological rock musical blends theodicy Read More …
Bing Liu’s intimate documentary initially seems like little more than a celebration of the simple joys of skateboarding while being young and carefree, a family drama of two young twenty-somethings raising a child together, and the struggle to make a living in a small city, Read More …