Movies

Subterms

    More stories

    • 63 Shares179 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Finding Yingying’ Review: Vanishing Point

      by

      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best MoviesBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest TheaterBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Finding Yingying’ Review: Vanishing PointThis documentary about the search for a missing student in Illinois takes a compassionate approach to grim material.A march to promote the finding of Yingying Zhang.Credit…MTV Documentary FilmsDec. 10, 2020, 12:00 p.m. ETFinding YingyingDirected by Jiayan ‘Jenny’ ShiDocumentaryNot RatedFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.The chilling documentary “Finding Yingying” watches a family grapple with an unfathomable horror: the disappearance and probable death of a loved one who was living far away. Yingying Zhang, a visiting scholar from China at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, went missing in June 2017. What happened with the investigation and in court can be found online, but most of the film deals with the dread-filled uncertainty before those outcomes, and with the continuing search for Zhang’s body.The director, Jiayan “Jenny” Shi, reads Zhang’s diary entries in voice-over and ponders her similarities with the missing woman. Both attended the same university in China, and shortly after arriving in the United States, Shi herself got into a car with a stranger, as Zhang is shown doing in security footage. (Zhang, in one of her most foreboding diary entries, had written of another circumstance in which she was walking in heavy rain and yearned to be inside a passing car.)Cultural expectations become a huge part of the story. Zhang’s family and boyfriend grow frustrated with the justice system in the United States (the pace is slow and there’s no way to make a suspect talk). Shi films Zhang’s family members in China as they consider their lives without her. (“Americans won’t give up on my daughter, right?” her mother asks.) The film captures their ordeal with compassion and a measure of self-reflexivity, which is as much as this unavoidably grim material could ask for.Finding YingyingNot rated. In English and Mandarin, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 38 minutes. Watch through virtual cinemas.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

    • 100 Shares199 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Assassins’ Review: Duped Into an International Murder Plot

      by

      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best MoviesBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest TheaterBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Assassins’ Review: Duped Into an International Murder PlotA documentary tries to explain how two women were able to cause the death of the North Korean leader’s half brother.Doan Thi Huong, center, in the documentary, “Assassins.”Credit…Greenwich EntertainmentDec. 10, 2020, 7:00 a.m. ETAssassinsDirected by Ryan WhiteDocumentary1h 44mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.The two women who smeared a nerve agent on the face of Kim Jong-nam, the half brother of the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, causing his death, have left a light pop-cultural footprint in the United States. This is especially so given that one of them was wearing a shirt reading “LOL” during the act. Anyone that meme-ready deserves at least one movie.Enter “Assassins,” a documentary from the filmmaker Ryan White (“Ask Dr. Ruth”), which traces with impressive clarity the path that led Siti Aisyah and Doan Thi Huong to Kuala Lumpur International Airport that morning in February 2017. It makes a convincing case that they had no idea they were involved in an international murder plot.[embedded content]Both women — the Indonesian Siti and the Vietnamese Huong — were released from prison last year, with Huong pleading guilty to the charge of causing bodily harm. White’s film suggests that the Malaysian justice system had treated them as scapegoats. Drawing on the defense lawyers and plenty of video evidence, the movie maintains that Siti and Huong were independently recruited as actresses for prank videos. One routine their bosses taught them? Rub baby lotion on a stranger.As filmmaking, “Assassins” is not new: It pulls from the usual paranoid-documentary playbook, inviting the audience to pore over surveillance footage and leaning on a sweat-inducing score from Blake Neely. Its main virtues are a wild story and a stealth sense of outrage. It argues that these so-called assassins became political pawns and had to face the courts without witnesses who might have aided their defense.AssassinsNot rated. In Vietnamese, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, English and Malay, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 44 minutes. In theaters. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

    • 113 Shares179 Views

      in Movies

      ‘The Prom’ Review: Showbiz Sanctimony, and All That Zazz

      by

      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best MoviesBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest TheaterBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘The Prom’ Review: Showbiz Sanctimony, and All That ZazzRyan Murphy takes on the Broadway hit “The Prom,” with help from Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman and Keegan-Michael Key.The bright (small) lights of Indiana meet Angie Dickinson glam: Nicole Kidman and Jo Ellen Pellman in “The Prom.”Credit…Melinda Sue Gordon/NetflixDec. 10, 2020, 7:00 a.m. ETThe PromDirected by Ryan MurphyComedy, Drama, MusicalPG-132h 10mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.Early in Ryan Murphy’s “The Prom,” a Broadway flack starts reading the reviews of a newly opened show about Eleanor Roosevelt, “Eleanor!” The gang’s all here, including the self-adoring stars, Dee Dee Allen (Meryl Streep) and Barry Glickman (James Corden). The drinks and laughs are flowing, and everyone is as lit as their bedazzled outfits. And then the flack starts reading the notice from The New York Times (hiss, boo). “This is not a review you want when you have crappy advance sales,” he bleats. “This is going to close us.”In his review of “The Prom” on Broadway, my Times colleague Jesse Green amusingly reassured readers that this wouldn’t happen, deeming it “a joyful hoot.” It won’t happen with the movie, which is based on the show, for other reasons. “The Prom” starts streaming on Netflix on Friday, which means no amount of cheers or jeers will matter. On Netflix, the movie will sit alongside thousands of other titles, subject only to mysterious algorithms and sheltered from both critics and the box office. Its canny mix of nostalgia and idealism, old-fashioned conservatism and new-age liberalism will hit the spot for some, even if its vision of American unity is hard to recognize right now.In its broad outlines, the story — a show-people lark wed to a morality tale about a teenage lesbian’s triumph — seems unchanged. Called out as unlikable narcissists (who can’t even make a hit), Dee Dee and Barry decide to rehabilitate their tainted reputations with celebrity activism. With their overripe second bananas, the archly named Angie Dickinson and Trent Oliver (Nicole Kidman and Andrew Rannells), they travel to an Indiana town, intent on taking up (uninvited) the cause of the heroine, Emma (Jo Ellen Pellman), a high schooler who’s been barred from bringing her girlfriend to the prom.The theme and the story’s arc emerge when Dee Dee et al. descend on the town, waving placards and trumpeting indignation. “We are here from New York City and we are going to save you,” Barry announces to Emma, who’s embedded in a meeting filled with parents and other students. This joke is soon repeated, as often happens in this movie, where every rose is gilded and every laugh squeezed until it’s dry. “Who are you people?” asks the mother (a misused Kerry Washington) leading the homophobic charge. “We are liberals from Broadway,” Trent says, assuring that Team New York will fall on its smug face while securing its own redemption.The tolerance message in “The Prom” is sincere, no matter how satirically delivered. And it’s easy to imagine that onstage the whole thing came off as charming (as a friend insisted), a quality not in Murphy’s paint box. (The charm of his TV series “Glee” sprang from the youth of his cast and the musical genre itself.) Murphy likes to go big and lightly bonkers, and his aesthetic is best described as Showbiz Expressionism: it’s splashy and ostensibly excessive without being threatening. In contrast to, say, the shocks of John Waters, for whom tastelessness is a revolt (aesthetic, political), Murphy’s excesses are tastefully vulgar strokes rather than a value.The story unwinds with histrionics and homilies, jazz hands and twinkle toes, overly busy camerawork and hookless lung bursters. (Matthew Sklar wrote the music and Chad Beguelin wrote the lyrics and, with Bob Martin, the screenplay.) Some of the songs are cheeky (“we’re gonna help that little lesbian/whether she likes it or not”); others are as earnest as a daily affirmation (“life’s no dress rehearsal”). Taken together, they create a parallel narration that makes swathes of dialogue superfluous. “If you’re not straight,” Emma sings early on, “then guess what’s bound to hit the fan.” Later, she sings “nobody out there ever gets to define/the life I’m meant to lead.”Pellman doesn’t look remotely like a teenager, but her melancholic sweetness is appealing and she has a quality of stillness that creates a much-needed oasis amid Murphy’s insistent din. It helps that, in contrast to her famous co-stars, she hasn’t been directed to oversell every note, whether musical or emotional. With her open face and pretty soprano, she turns her character into a recognizable adolescent and lets you see — and feel — Emma’s yearning, her hurt and belief that something better, more soul-nurturing, waits beyond the prejudices and provincialism of her town. Like Dorothy and countless others, Emma dreams of her place over the rainbow.She gets it, with assistance from her soon humbled, ultimately victorious New York helpers (and the warm presence of Keegan-Michael Key as the principal). How this all goes down is as predictable as expected except that, in the year 2020, it’s also more fantastical than “The Wizard of Oz” at its trippiest. Here, all it takes for bigots to accept Emma and L.G.B.T.Q. rights is for Trent to call them out as hypocrites who should — in a sublimely narcissistic move — be more like their fabulous, righteous interlopers. In other words, if the haters would open their tiny, hard hearts, everything would be fine. You don’t have to be a cynic to know that is a crock. You just need to be an American.The PromRated PG-13 for who knows? Musical theater? Glitter? Running time: 2 hours 10 minutes. Watch on Netflix.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

    • 100 Shares149 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Funny Boy’ Review: Coming Out During Civil War

      by

      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best MoviesBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest TheaterBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Funny Boy’ Review: Coming Out During Civil WarDeepa Mehta’s sprawling coming-of-age drama follows a boy who realizes he is gay in a country that criminalizes homosexuality.Arush Nand in “Funny Boy.”Credit…Netflix/ArrayDec. 10, 2020, 7:00 a.m. ETFunny BoyDirected by Deepa MehtaDrama1h 49mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.Set against the backdrop of the Sri Lankan civil war, “Funny Boy” centers on a protagonist who is effectively fighting on two fronts.Arjie — played by Arush Nand as a boy when the movie begins in 1974 and by Brandon Ingram around the start of the war in 1983 — is regarded as “funny” because he likes to wear makeup and doesn’t like sports. As he soon realizes, he is gay in a country that criminalizes homosexuality. He’s also Tamil, which means he belongs to Sri Lanka’s ethnic minority, although his family’s wealth insulates it to a degree from the toll of the violence roiling between the Tamils and the majority Sinhalese.When Arjie is a boy, his father (Ali Kazmi) pushes him to avoid “girly things” and instead work on his cricket. But Arjie is encouraged by a cool aunt, Radha (Agam Darshi), who helps cultivate his interest in theater and teaches him to put nail polish on his toes where no one can see. In what becomes a motif, the director, Deepa Mehta, cuts to shots of older Arjie sitting in his younger’s self’s place at crucial moments like this one.[embedded content]Radha wants to marry a Sinhalese man — he’s an admirer of Gloria Steinem, he says by way of flirtation. There’s a brief, tense scene of the families sitting down with one another and waffling between hostility and comity. (“If you come near my daughter I will kill you.” “Would you like a biscuit?”)But the movie’s brightness dims — for Arjie and for viewers — when Radha moves to Toronto and mostly out of the film. After that, the sprawling, intermittently engaging narrative (based on a novel by Shyam Selvadurai, who wrote the screenplay with Mehta) toggles awkwardly between the general and the specific.The film springs to life whenever it sticks close to Arjie’s story. He falls for a Sinhalese schoolmate, Shehan (Rehan Mudannayake), who shows him his collection of David Bowie posters and tells him that “people like us exist” — abroad, he adds, “where it’s not illegal.” There are also some lovely pop music interludes, as when Arjie and Shehan, alone in a large hall, dance to “Every Breath You Take.”Mehta’s elaborate long takes contribute to the general sense of tumult, but the film never fully shakes the sense of stating the obvious. Ethnic conflicts tear relationships apart. Being gay is normal. Cricket doesn’t have to be all that.Funny BoyNot rated. In Tamil, English and Sinhalese, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 49 minutes. Watch on Netflix.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

    • 75 Shares149 Views

      in Movies

      ‘The Weasels’ Tale’ Review: House Hunting

      by

      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best MoviesBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest TheaterBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘The Weasels’ Tale’ Review: House HuntingArgentine showbiz stars in a remote mansion battle with two real estate hustlers in Juan José Campanella’s crowd-pleasing comedy.Graciela Borges in “The Weasels’ Tale.”Credit…Outsider PicturesDec. 10, 2020, 7:00 a.m. ETThe Weasel’s TaleDirected by Juan José CampanellaComedy, Drama2h 9mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.Schemers meet their match in “The Weasels’ Tale,” Juan José Campanella’s crowd-pleasing Argentine comedy. A former diva, Mara (grande dame Graciela Borges), shares a rambling remote mansion with her milquetoast husband, Pedro (Luis Brandoni), and two suave parasites she used to make movies with: a director, Norberto (Oscar Martínez), and a screenwriter, Martín (Marcos Mundstock). They pass the time trading reminiscences and barbs, until a slick city couple, Bárbara (Clara Lago) and Francisco (Nicolás Francella), show up and angle to buy the property.[embedded content]The housemate dysfunction might be sad if it wasn’t played for laughs. Mara is frozen in her starry past, and Norberto and Martín treat her and Pedro with self-aggrandizing nostalgia or contempt. But Campanella, who directed the Oscar-winning 2010 thriller “The Secret in Their Eyes,” sets up a routine of look-at-them-go one-upmanship. Would-be villains Bárbara and Francisco look plain by comparison. (The older actors are fixtures of Argentine cinema, and the movie remakes a 1976 premise; Mundstock, who died in April, was a well-liked humorist.)Norberto and Martín, professional cynics, spin their own plots to stymie the young swindlers, and the movie leans on our delectation in this. The Grand Guignol conclusion does fulfill the flair promised by the film’s tuned-up colors and by Mara’s vintage posters for her movies, which have glorious titles like “The Other Woman Forever.” There’s an attempt to reinvigorate the romance between Mara and Pedro, but that pales next to the bad behavior of their less savory companions. You can’t keep a good weasel down.The Weasels’ TaleNot rated. In Spanish, with subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 9 minutes. In theaters and on virtual cinemas. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

    • 125 Shares199 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Wild Mountain Thyme’ Review: Finding Love Down on the Farm

      by

      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best MoviesBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest TheaterBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Wild Mountain Thyme’ Review: Finding Love Down on the FarmJohn Patrick Shanley adapts his play “Outside Mullingar” into a movie. (Don’t worry about the accents.)Emily Blunt and Jamie Dornan in “Wild Mountain Thyme.”Credit…Kerry Brown/Bleecker StreetDec. 10, 2020, 7:00 a.m. ETWild Mountain ThymeDirected by John Patrick ShanleyDrama, RomancePG-13Find TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.Whenever a movie has its performers speak in a regional dialect, the world entire suddenly teems with accent experts. “Wild Mountain Thyme,” written and directed by John Patrick Shanley (adapted from his play “Outside Mullingar”) is set in Ireland. And it started getting pushback in that country when its trailer dropped in November. Film people on social media made sport with the speaking styles of its American, English and Irish cast too.But come now. Each film is its own circumscribed world. Hearing is an even more subjective sense than seeing. And playing accent police officer without qualification while watching a movie is ultimately doing it wrong. That said, motley accents are the least of this movie’s problems.[embedded content]This is a “who is going to inherit the farm” story in which that question is abruptly resolved pretty much halfway through. It is also a romantic comedy/drama whose tone ping-pongs from grave to lyrical to absurdist willy-nilly, and hits all those registers at fortissimo volume.Its premise is simple: Anthony (Jamie Dornan) loves girl-on-the-farm-next-door Rosemary (Emily Blunt) but can’t let her know. He’s got some glitch that renders him, he believes, bad boyfriend material — at least. As their respective parents (one is played by Christopher Walken, who’s funny and has a lovely final scene) shuffle off this mortal coil, the two find themselves facing only each other. Oh, and also a rich American potential interloper, played by Jon Hamm.At the film’s end, in a stormy scene with distant echoes of both “The Quiet Man” and “I Know Where I’m Going,” Blunt and Dornan face off in passionate screwball mode, and sparks fly. But the viewer’s patience may have been too harshly tested en route to this point to make much difference.Wild Mountain ThymeRated PG-13, for a little accented barnyard language. Running time: 1 hour 42 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

    • 150 Shares189 Views

      in Movies

      Ariana DeBose Credits 'The Prom' for Giving Her Full Circle Celebratory Moment

      by

      Instagram

      When appearing on ‘Good Morning America’, the dancer playing Alyssa Greene in Ryan Murphy’s new film recalls a moment from her high school dance when people stared at her for being different.

      Dec 10, 2020
      AceShowbiz – Ariana DeBose had a “full circle” moment while dancing in new Netflix movie “The Prom” after classmates made her feel odd for stepping out with a girl at her real high school dance.
      The gay star was thrilled when a school crush asked her to dance but she quickly retreated from the fun when she realised pals weren’t ready to see two girls dancing.
      She tells “Good Morning America”, “It was the first time that I realised that people would start to stare at you for being different and I didn’t like it, so I grooved my way back to the punch bowl.”

        See also…

      “Cut to making ‘The Prom’ and I had the opportunity to have this completely full circle celebratory moment, where two girls got to dance together and be cheered for.”
      [embedded content]
      The new film, starring Kerry Washington, Meryl Streep, and Nicole Kidman, revolves around a group of Broadway veterans who take over a small town prom after a gay student is forbidden from taking her girlfriend to the big dance. It debuts this weekend (December 11).
      In a separate interview, Ariana revealed that she felt a little bit intimidated by the star-studded cast, though she thanked her experience in “Hamilton” for helping her overcoming it. “Hollywood came out in droves to see [‘Hamilton’],” she shared. “It did allow me to meet many of these people — whether they knew they were meeting me, I knew I was meeting them! It allowed me to get out some of those jitters ahead of time, so that when I did show up in Los Angeles to make this movie, I didn’t necessarily feel like I was going to fall apart. I could at least make a coherent sentence!”

      You can share this post!

      Next article
      Jamie Cullum Becomes World Record Holder After Hosting Largest Music Lesson Ever

      Related Posts More

    • 63 Shares159 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Farewell Amor’ Review: Alone Together

      by

      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best MoviesBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest TheaterBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Farewell Amor’ Review: Alone TogetherEkwa Msangi’s tender drama shows us that goodbyes haunt immigrants wherever they go.Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine and Jayme Lawson in “Farewell Amor.”Credit…IFC FilmsDec. 10, 2020, 5:00 a.m. ETFarewell AmorDirected by Ekwa MsangiDrama, Music, Romance1h 35mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.Contrary to its title, “Farewell Amor” begins with a reunion. In a delicate opening set in an airport, Walter (Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine), an Angolan refugee in New York, embraces his wife and teenage daughter, who’ve just arrived in America after a 17-year wait for visas.But Ekwa Msangi’s tender drama shows us that goodbyes haunt immigrants wherever they go. Walter, we learn, has just broken up with a lover who kept him company all these years. His wife, Esther (Zainab Jah), and daughter, Sylvia (Jayme Lawson), are quietly mourning the lives they’ve abandoned to live in a strange country with a now-strange man.[embedded content]Msangi employs a neat trick to capture the family’s coming-together in all its complexity. Split into three chapters, the film depicts their reunion from each character’s perspective, switching from the wide shot of the opening to a more intimate, point-of-view style. Each version deepens our understanding of the characters by highlighting new details: a strained smile; the hesitation before a hug.Even as “Farewell Amor” treads familiar paths, its tripartite structure allows for uncommon nuance. Another film might have painted Esther’s religious orthodoxy as quaint or even caricaturish. Here, in hushed montages, Jah powerfully conveys Esther’s loneliness in America, while the character’s long-distance calls reveal how she found community in church after losing her home to war.Sylvia’s strand is the most conventional (though Lawson sparkles onscreen). A vivacious dancer prohibited from pursuing her passion by her mother, she defies her way into a step contest. It’s a contrived plotline, but it infuses the film with an ebullient rhythm, the music giving Sylvia a taste of home — and a reason for hope.Farewell AmorNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Google Play, Vudu 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