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      ‘Silk Road’ Review: A Digital Drug Kingpin’s Undoing

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Silk Road’ Review: A Digital Drug Kingpin’s UndoingTiller Russell’s new fact-based thriller about Ross W. Ulbricht could have been a nail-biter, but ended up a limp snooze.Nick Robinson as Ross W. Ulbricht in “Silk Road.”Credit…Catherine Kanavy/LionsgateFeb. 18, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETSilk RoadDirected by Tiller RussellCrime, Drama, ThrillerR1h 52mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.This maladroit fact-based cyberthriller begins at a branch of the San Francisco Public Library in 2013. As Ross W. Ulbricht — the founder of an online marketplace called Silk Road, where illegal drugs were bought and sold — the actor Nick Robinson lays out, in voiceover, some bold anti-authoritarian sentiment. He mentions “the insurmountable barrier between the world as it is and the world as I want it,” and how his project was about “taking back our liberty.”The movie than flashes back several years. At an Austin, Texas, bar, Ross flexes his pickup chops on Julia (Alexandra Shipp). “You wanna dance?” he asks. “No one else is,” she observes. “Exactly,” he replies. Heavy, man.[embedded content]In many respects, “Silk Road” is an excellent examination of why you should probably never date, or maybe even socialize with, a libertarian. It comes up short in almost every other way, though. In the hands of David Fincher, Michael Mann, Olivier Assayas or Katheryn Bigelow, “Silk Road,” the story of Ulbricht’s outlaw project and how it came to ruin, could deliver thrills and food for thought. Under the aegis of the writer-director Tiller Russell, it delivers limpness.Here, two D.E.A. agents who themselves committed crimes in pursuing the actual Silk Road case are morphed into one composite character, played by Jason Clarke, the one-time star of Bigelow’s “Zero Dark Thirty” who looks appropriately befuddled by his current circumstance. Tiller also tries to do Fincher’s “The Social Network” one better, showing Julia’s ultimate rejection of Ross as a trigger for him to conspire to commit murder. Nice overreaction, kid. Compounding other story and directorial missteps are dialogue exchanges such as this: “What if you could create an Amazon for drugs?” “You despise Amazon.” “I love freedom.”Silk RoadRated R for despising Amazon but loving freedom, and other bold moves. Running time: 1 hours 52 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Google Play, FandangoNow and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      ‘Sin’ Review: Man of Marble

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Sin’ Review: Man of MarbleThe second feature in recent months from the Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky is a grimy, austere Michelangelo biopic.A scene from Andrei Konchalovsky’s “Sin.”Credit…Corinth FilmsFeb. 18, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETSinDirected by Andrey KonchalovskiyBiography, Drama, History2h 14mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.“Sin” is the second feature from the Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky to reach virtual cinemas in recent months, and it is not nearly as strong or vital as “Dear Comrades!” (still available to rent). An austere, demanding sit, “Sin” — a Russian-Italian coproduction with Italian dialogue — nevertheless has a stubborn integrity in exploring the competing forces of patronage and creative inspiration that Michelangelo confronted in the 16th century.The film depicts the period when Michelangelo (Alberto Testone) worked on the Tomb of Pope Julius II. After Julius dies, the movie’s Michelangelo agrees to make the commission exclusive, effectively setting up a conflict of interest: Julius belonged to the della Rovere family, a rival of the Medicis; and the Medicis, who now control the papacy, are ideally positioned to support Michelangelo going forward. (Those familiar with the players will surely get more out of the film.)[embedded content]Forever requesting money, promising to meet impossible deadlines and ranting about other artists (“He doesn’t know anything about sculpture!” he scoffs more than once of Raphael), Michelangelo appears to have more luck than strategy in pursuing his single-minded artistic ambitions. Half- or perhaps fully mad, and unfailingly surly, he talks aloud to Dante, his inspiration.The emphasis is on agony, not ecstasy — and definitely not on sanitation. Moviegoers may duck to avoid being hit by falling waste. The film finds its pulse, and an image that captures the magnitude of the artist’s obsession, when Michelangelo takes on the Herzogian task of conveying an intact block of marble from a vertigo-inducing quarry in Carrara to lower ground. Even others’ lives won’t stand in his way.SinNot rated. In Italian, with subtitles. Running time: 2 hour 14 minutes. On Film Forum’s Virtual Cinema.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      ‘Test Pattern’ Review: Refocusing the Lens on Race and Gender

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Test Pattern’ Review: Refocusing the Lens on Race and GenderShatara Michelle Ford’s lean, smart debut feature confronts us with our presumptions about what rape and victimhood look like — onscreen and in life.From left, Brittany S. Hall and Will Brill in “Test Pattern.”Credit…Kino LorberFeb. 18, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETTest PatternDirected by Shatara Michelle FordDrama, Thriller1h 22mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.“Test Pattern” opens with a bait-and-switch: An ominous glimpse of a man kissing a drunk woman in a dark bedroom cuts to a casual scene at a bar. The woman, Renesha (Brittany S. Hall), a corporate professional, now dances with a different man — Evan (Will Brill), her boyfriend-to-be. The first half of Shatara Michelle Ford’s debut feature, set in Austin, Texas, traces their relationship in an endearingly low-key, mumblecore fashion.But the unease of the opening scene lingers. Did that moment come before or after Evan and Renesha’s meet-cute? Was it an adulterous hookup or something more insidious? By the time the answers arrive, “Test Pattern” has forced us to question our presumptions about what rape and victimhood look like — onscreen and in life.In Renesha’s case it’s a series of subtle gestures. At a girls’ night out, two persistent men ply her and her friend Amber (Gail Bean) with drinks and weed, and one of them quietly takes a woozy Renesha home.[embedded content]That Renesha is Black and both her boyfriend and attacker are white adds unspoken subtext. Supportive but indignant, Evan drags a disoriented Renesha from hospital to hospital — it turns out to be surprisingly hard to find an E.R. with a nurse qualified to administer a rape kit. Evan’s faith in the bureaucracies of health care and law enforcement clash with Renesha’s (ultimately well-founded) resignation, and his actions unwittingly deepen the theft of agency that has left her reeling.“Test Pattern” achieves a lot with very little: The film’s nonlinear editing and cannily scored silences invite our interpretations, locating in them the entanglements of race and gender. Ford pushes us, if not to definitive answers, then to the right questions.Test PatternNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 22 minutes. In theaters and on Kino Marquee. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      ‘Blithe Spirit’ Review: Dead, but Not Loving It

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Blithe Spirit’ Review: Dead, but Not Loving ItDan Stevens stars as a writer taunted by the ghost of his dead wife in this grating adaptation of the 1941 play.Dan Stevens and Leslie Mann in “Blithe Spirit.”Credit…Rob Youngson/IFC Films Feb. 18, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETBlithe SpiritDirected by Edward HallComedy, Fantasy, RomancePG-131h 35mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.A comedy that’s more screw-loose than screwball, Edward Hall’s “Blithe Spirit,” a ludicrous adaptation of Noël Coward’s 1941 stage play, reimagines its source material as little more than a slip-and-fall farce.Dan Stevens stars as Charles, a near-parody of a blocked writer who’s introduced literally eating the words he has just typed. Commissioned to write a screenplay of one of his best-selling novels, Charles is desperate: Bedeviled by bedroom dysfunction (“Big Ben’s stopped chiming,” he whines to a friend), he hopes to find inspiration by inviting a disgraced psychic (Judi Dench) to host a séance in his imposing Art Deco mansion.[embedded content]What gets released, though, is not what Charles expects as the ghost of his first wife, Elvira (Leslie Mann), killed in a riding accident years earlier, moves in and takes umbrage at her replacement (Isla Fisher). Elvira, visible only to Charles and the audience, and blessed with a well-stocked ghostly wardrobe, is anything but blithe: Wrecking the garden and throwing knives at the help, she proves as hard to get rid of — and about as entertaining — as black mold.Propelled by tiresome characters and tortured setups, “Blithe Spirit” (originally filmed by David Lean in 1945) is a dated curiosity. Merging upper-crust twittery with hocus-pocus nonsense not even Dench can sell, the dialogue encourages Elvira to nag and everyone to over-emote. Surplus buffoonery and a new ending add nothing to the original, leaving us with a movie that obsesses over death while showing all too few signs of life.Blithe SpiritRated PG-13 for spiked drinks and saucy dialogue. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Google Play and Vudu. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      ‘I Care a Lot’ Review: The Art of the Steal

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyCritic’s Pick‘I Care a Lot’ Review: The Art of the StealNasty people do terrible things in this wildly entertaining Netflix caper about guardianship fraud.Rosamund Pike in “I Care a Lot.”Credit…Seacia Pavao/NetfilxFeb. 18, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETI Care a LotNYT Critic’s PickDirected by J BlakesonComedy, Crime, ThrillerR1h 58mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.Bookended by towering stilettos and a guillotine-blade bob, Marla Grayson (Rosamund Pike) strides through “I Care a Lot” with the icy confidence of the inveterate fraud. Her racket is guardianship: identifying powerless retirees, having them falsely declared mentally incompetent and herself appointed their legal conservator.A network of enablers — including an unscrupulous doctor and an oblivious judge — grease the grift as Marla and her personal and business partner (Eiza González) happen upon Jennifer (Dianne Wiest). With a healthy nest egg and no apparent relatives, Jennifer is a “cherry”; and one chilling, all-too-believable sequence later, she has been secured in an assisted-living facility and her considerable assets liquidated. Marla, however, is about to discover she has messed with the wrong old lady.[embedded content]An unexpectedly gripping thriller that seesaws between comedy and horror, “I Care a Lot” is cleverly written (by the director, J Blakeson) and wonderfully cast. Marla is an almost cartoonish sociopath, and Pike leans into her villainy with unwavering bravado. And Wiest is sly perfection: Watch as Jennifer, drugged and smirking, spits an unprintable curse at her tormentor before putting her in a headlock. But it’s the introduction of an inscrutable Russian gangster (Peter Dinklage, all cool intelligence and wounded-puppy eyes) that gives Marla a worthy foil and the plot a reason to climax.With its ice-pick dialogue and gleefully ironic title, “I Care a Lot” is a slick, savage caper with roots in a real-world scam (as an episode of the Netflix series “Dirty Money” recounts). An overlong, somewhat mushy middle section made me fear Blakeson was losing his nerve. I was wrong.I Care a LotRated R for killing, cursing and elder abuse. Running time: 1 hour 58 minutes. Watch on Netflix.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      ‘Mafia Inc’ Review: The Business They Have Chosen

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Mafia Inc’ Review: The Business They Have ChosenThis Montreal crime saga is never dull despite a sense of déjà vu.Sergio Castellitto in “Mafia Inc.”Credit…Film MovementFeb. 18, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETMafia IncDirected by Daniel GrouCrime, Drama2h 23mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.“Mafia Inc” was officially inspired by a nonfiction book on the Canadian mob. The movie and its characters are fiction, though, and their unofficial inspiration appears to be other mob films. It takes brass to poach on turf decisively owned by “The Godfather” and “Goodfellas,” and the director, Daniel Grou, who goes by Podz, deserves credit for delivering a saga that’s never dull despite hitting overfamiliar beats.Sergio Castellitto plays Frank Paternò, a Montreal crime boss whose latest venture — a share in a bridge that will connect Calabria to Sicily — could make him legit. Frank has two sons: Giaco (Donny Falsetti), who has shades of Sonny Corleone (he disagrees with his father in front of associates), and Patrizio (Michael Ricci), who is engaged to Sofie (Mylène Mackay), the daughter of the family’s wary longtime tailor (Gilbert Sicotte).[embedded content]There is also Vince (Marc-André Grondin), who, we eventually learn, is almost like a son to Frank, although the way he is introduced — arranging for a bus carrying a youth soccer team to be driven off a cliff in Venezuela — makes the revelation of his ties even more horrifying. Who would welcome such a psychopath? Was he always that way?Apart from the multilingualism (the strong cast moves fluidly among French, English and Italian), the cruelty and ingenuity of the violence are what most distinguish “Mafia Inc,” which can be tough to watch even for this genre. For better or worse, Grau has a knack for staging brutality, and for having his movie rock out to a Joy Division track or two.Mafia IncNot rated. In French, English and Italian, with subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 23 minutes. On virtual cinemas and available to rent or buy on Apple TV, Vudu and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      ‘Shook’ Review: Unliked and Followed

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Shook’ Review: Unliked and FollowedA killer with a mysterious agenda hunts down social-media influencers in this horror movie.Daisye Tutor in “Shook.”Credit…ShudderFeb. 18, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETShookDirected by Jennifer HarringtonHorrorNot Rated1h 28mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.Most of the characters in “Shook” are low-level social-media influencers, bottom-feeders in a world of self-involved make-believe. Since their lives are built on the intersection of voyeurism and exhibitionism, these 20 somethings are perfect fodder for the kind of horror movie where an omniscient psychopath uses intrusive surveillance.Unfortunately, “Shook,” which is streaming on Shudder, does not fully exploit this intriguing premise and devolves into far-fetched inanity.[embedded content]Mia (Daisye Tutor) is a rising social-media princess who, rattled by a murder, forgoes a very important livestream of something head-scratchingly mundane to dogsit for her sister, Nicole (Emily Goss). Alas, a mysterious, unseen caller has Mia’s number and can track all her moves within Nicole’s house — the movie almost entirely takes place in that single location — subjecting Mia to an increasingly unhinged barrage of threats and demands.For half the film, the director Jennifer Harrington builds up suspense by encasing Mia in a densely woven network of voice and video messages, calls and texts. Mia’s entire life is filtered through technology, which is now used against her, and her cavalier attitude toward privacy backfires as well. Tutor acts up a storm considering that most of her emoting happens while staring at a phone. Still, Mia remains a cardboard character in search of blood-soaked redemption.At its best, when it looks as if Harrington wants to pursue a larger point and satirize Instagrammed lives, “Shook” feels like a garish hybrid of a “Black Mirror” episode and a 1980s slasher movie — an electronic soundtrack largely pulled from the Italians Do It Better record label is a callback to the synthetic John Carpenter scores of yore.But “Shook” is done in by its final reveal, which manages to be simultaneously improbable and conventional. For engagement, we’ll have to look somewhere else.ShookNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 29 minutes. Watch on Shudder.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Martin Scorsese Complains About Systematic Devaluation of Cinema by Streaming Movies

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      Though acknowledging that he has benefited from streaming platforms, ‘The Irishman’ director criticizes the movie industry for being more focused on ‘business.’

      Feb 18, 2021
      AceShowbiz – Martin Scorsese has blasted the movie industry for being more focused on “business” as a result of the rise in “content” being produced for streaming companies.
      The legendary director, whose last movie “The Irishman” was released on Netflix, suggests that streaming movies have had a negative impact on cinema, which he claims is being “systematically devalued, sidelined, demeaned, and reduced to its lowest common denominator, ‘content.’ ”
      In an essay for Harper’s Magazine, Martin explained, “As recently as 15 years ago, the term ‘content’ was heard only when people were discussing the cinema on a serious level, and it was contrasted and measured against ‘form.’ ”
      “Then, gradually, it was used more and more by the people who took over media companies, most of whom knew nothing about the history of the art form, or even cared enough to think they should.”
      Martin acknowledges he has benefited from streaming platforms but suggests the film industry is too focused on “business.”

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      The 78-year-old filmmaker said, “We can’t depend on the movie business, such as it is, to take care of cinema. In the movie business, which is now the mass visual entertainment business, the emphasis is always on the word ‘business’, and value is always determined by the amount of money to be made from any given property.”
      Martin, whose movie credits include award-winning movies, “Goodfellas”, “Raging Bull”, “The Departed” and “Taxi Driver”, called on those in the film industry to protect the “greatest treasures of our culture.”
      He said, “Those of us who know the cinema and its history have to share our love and our knowledge with as many people as possible.”

      “And we have to make it crystal clear to the current legal owners of these films that they amount to much, much more than mere property to be exploited and then locked away. They are among the greatest treasures of our culture, and they must be treated accordingly.”

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