Film Reviews
CategoryMSPIFF Kicks Off, Ponderously, with “Lost City of Z”
Last night at St. Anthony Main Theatre, several people queued up to welcome us to opening night of the 36th annual Minneapolis St. Paul In..
“Queen of the Desert”: Werner Herzog Puts White Privilege On a Camel
If you’re a fan of ’80s Oscar bait who wonders why they don’t make ’em like that any more, then grab a tub of popcorn and settle in to enj..
“Personal Shopper”: Kristen Stewart Stars in a Very French Ghost Story
“There were about nine movies in there,” said my friend Stephen as the credits rolled on Personal Shopper. I knew what he meant, though pe..
“Kong: Skull Island” is a Mediocre Monster Movie with Pretentious Cinematography
If you squint hard and peer back past the various boots and reboots of King Kong, you might catch a glimpse of the climactic scene of the ..
“The Lego Batman Movie” Lets the Caped Crusader Live a Little
Sometime between my ’80s childhood and the 2014 Lego Movie, the little Danish bricks got an attitude. It may have been a matter of self-de..
“The Space Between Us” is Science Fiction, Minus the Science
The Space Between Us is a science fiction movie that seems like it was written by people who learned their science from a screenwriting cl..
“Toni Erdmann”: A Very European Family Comedy
By the end of Toni Erdmann, a woman has grabbed her father’s false teeth out of his pocket and stuck them into her mouth. He’s seen her na..
Martin Scorsese’s “Silence”: A Hair Shirt, in Movie Form
However you define a “popcorn movie,” Silence is the opposite. I went in with a big tub of buttered on my lap, and every kernel stared up ..
“Jackie”: Ingmar Bergman in the White House
Jackie is one of those movies that’s precision-engineered to land an Oscar nomination for acting. It’s an impeccably cast historical drama..
“Passengers”: Stop the World. I Want to Get Off.
It might be going a little far to look at a thousand-foot corkscrew throbbing its way through space and say “this is what rape culture loo..
“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” Proves J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World Has Legs
Some time in 1999, I noticed that one of the kids in a family I was baby-sitting had spent the entire day in her room. “Anna, are you okay..
Deliver Us From “Arrival”
For the first half of its two-hour running time, Arrival unfolds remarkably like a science fiction story from 1949. Alien beings have made..