Catch Me If You Can follows the semi-true story of Frank Abagnale Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio), a teenage con artist who stole millions of dollars over the course of six years, posing as an airplane pilot, a doctor, and a lawyer, before ultimately being arrested and Read More …
“I still don’t understand the play.” So muses Augie Steenbeck (Jason Schwartzman) multiple times through Wes Anderson’s story of a televised production of a fictitious play about death, grief, acting, “brainiac” children, alien invasion, military oversight, first romances, seasoned affairs, art, and storytelling itself. Prior Read More …
The absolutely brilliant Paul Giamatti plays Paul Hunham, a cantankerous, foul-mouthed prep-school teacher, who is somewhat forced into taking care of a bunch of misfit students during winter break in Alexander Payne’s newest masterpiece The Holdovers. The film, which also stars Dominic Sessa as Angus Tully, Read More …
There were several movies about Jesus in 2016, each of which tapped into a different genre—the detective work of Risen, the family road trip of The Young Messiah, the spiritual drama of Last Days in the Desert, the epic action of the Ben-Hur remake—but the first and arguably most interesting Read More …
Everything, Everywhere, All at Once is one of those films that reminded me that life is messy, that the simplest of answers are sometimes discovered through unusual encounters, and that the multitude of distractions and noise of our existence can sometimes keep us from appreciating Read More …
Inside Out announces itself as a movie about emotions—and it is—but it’s also about the making of our minds. And the minds that made it are among the wildest imaginations making movies today. It tracks a world inside the mind of eleven-year-old Riley, who is growing 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 …
A “minor character” steps off a movie screen and into Depression-era New Jersey, stranding his fellow characters while offering perfect (but imaginary) love to an abused housewife. Woody Allen’s best film (even he regards it as the most successful of his efforts) is a delightfully Read More …
Eminently quotable, Rob Reiner’s The Princess Bride—with a screenplay by William Goldman based off his own book—combines slapstick humor with situational comedy and satire in a way few other films have ever achieved. No other filmic attempt at deconstructing the fairy tale has so successfully struck Read More …
The Big Lebowski showcases the best of the Coen brothers’ comedic talents—lovably ridiculous characters, hilarious echolalic wordplay, and delightful sight gags—making this one of their most successful pure comedies. But just as effectively, Lebowski functions as Coen brothers wisdom literature. If A Serious Man is their Book of Job, then Read More …