The American Dream has been the keystone of so many stories over the years. The belief that this country’s particular blend of freedom and possibility opens the door to making your own way in the world is an alluring prospect for those not born into wealth or power. It’s that dream of something bigger that captures the imagination of Jacob (Steven Yeun), the protagonist of Lee Isaac Chung’s new film “Minari,” who uproots his family from their life in California for an opportunity to gain some notoriety by building a farm that grows traditional Korean vegetables. His wife, Monica (Yeri…
Author: Steve Katz
Tuesday, February 25. That’s the last time I set foot in a movie theater, specifically to see Leigh Whannell’s excellent reboot of “The Invisible Man.” It’s safe to say that a lot has happened since then. It’s unlikely anyone is going to remember 2020 for the movies that came out this year. They may remember it for Warner Bros.’ short-sighted attempt to push “Tenet” into theaters in the fall and the reverberations across the industry that its failures caused. They may also remember it for “No Time to Die” moving its spring release date — the canary in a coal…
Under normal circumstances, the release of a new Pixar film would be met with great fanfare. But 2020 is not a year of normal circumstances, and Pixar’s second release of the year, “Soul,” is premiering on Disney+ on Christmas Day instead of its original planned release in theaters over the summer. “Soul” is arguably the biggest movie to get the Disney+ rollout, coming from not only their most prestigious animated outfit but also Pete Docter, the director of “Up” and “Inside Out,” two of the studio’s strongest offerings in recent times. The last major Disney release to make the shift…
When Brock Turner was famously slapped on the wrist for raping a fellow student at Stanford in 2015, the judge presiding over the case made headlines for how lenient his sentencing was. The sentiment was simple enough (as voiced by Turner’s father): “He had already paid a steep price… for 20 minutes of action.” Neither the judge nor Brock’s father specifically called Turner a “promising young man,” but that’s certainly the sort of language that’s been used in relation to the sentencing in the wider culture. Considering that, it’s unlikely a coincidence that director Emerald Fennell (making her feature debut)…
It’s often but not always the case that when actors become directors, their early work focuses heavily on acting showcases. The conventional wisdom is that actors know acting and thus would be far more comfortable directing a project focused on acting than, say, a huge action movie. It’s a reductive claim to be sure — one that can easily be debunked by looking at the likes of “Night of the Hunter,” “Get Out” or countless other examples — but the stereotype doesn’t come out of nowhere. Regina King, two years removed from her Best Supporting Actress Oscar for “If Beale…
It’s a simple fact that no one is going to watch “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” how it was originally intended. George C. Wolfe’s adaptation of the August Wilson stage play must have been conceived as a celebration of black history and culture through a story focused expressly on black excellence, an opportunity for Chadwick Boseman to show more of his range and another opportunity to see Viola Davis bring Wilson’s words to life on the big screen. It’s still all of those things, of course, but with Boseman’s surprising and tragic passing over the summer, the film suddenly became the…
You’d be hard-pressed to find a more ubiquitous power producer over the last decade than Ryan Murphy. He may have made his name as writer/showrunner for “Glee,” but he’s expanded his empire considerably since then. Shows like “American Horror Story,” “Hollywood” and “Ratched” have shown that he’s far more than just a high school musical theater nerd, but for his first directorial feature since 2010’s “Eat Pray Love,” he’s returning to what made him one of the true power players in the television landscape: musical theater set in a high school. The film in question is “The Prom,” an adaptation…
No one would accuse David Fincher of lacking attention to detail in his projects. Long known as one of the most demanding directors in Hollywood, he’s become famous for going to almost masochistic lengths to get the takes he wants, even if it takes dozens upon dozens of tries. The results of this perfectionist streak are hard to deny, having directed two of the best movies of the last two decades in “Zodiac” and “The Social Network.” It’s been six years since Fincher’s last feature, “Gone Girl,” and he has spent much of the interim working as an executive producer…
Ruben (Riz Ahmed) is a recovering heroin addict and underground metalcore drummer in a two-piece band with his girlfriend, Lou (Olivia Cooke). He spends his nights in tiny clubs and holes in the wall surrounded by people — the air filled with squealing feedback, crashing cymbals and relentless double bass. For Ruben, to gig is to live, to hold the demons at bay and to scrape together enough scratch to keep going for another day. It’s an extraordinarily fragile life, but one that gives him comfort. But what happens when the one thing that keeps you straight is taken from…
It’s easy to get caught up in the hype of a new movie featuring actors you love. For those who are keyed into the film industry enough to follow the lineups of major film festivals like Sundance, Cannes, Venice and Toronto, a brief summary and cast listing is about as much information as you have to go on. But sometimes, that’s all it takes to capture the imagination. Take for instance Francis Lee’s “Ammonite,” which saw its debut in Toronto earlier this fall. Its stars, Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan, are arguably two of the finest actresses of the last…