Movie Reviews and Previews TIFF Review: Chris Pine’s Poolman Chris Pine’s directorial debut, Poolman, is, to put it nicely, a kooky love letter to Los Angeles with a neo-noir flair. There is a lot of energy on display in Poolman; there is not, however, any focus or successful management of tone. Swinging from hipster homage of bygone eras By Sarah • Sep 13, 2023 03:37 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews TIFF Review: Pain Hustlers The best thing that happened to Dumb Money is that I saw Pain Hustlers before that review posts, because after seeing Pain Hustlers, I went back to my Dumb Money review and revised it as “not THAT bad”. Pain Hustlers, however, IS that bad. Directed by David Yates (of Harry By Sarah • Sep 13, 2023 01:35 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews Spooky season is almost here I don’t know what it says about me that two of my “comfort shows” in recent years are The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor. Maybe it just means that I really like the work of filmmaker Mike Flanagan, and I shouldn’t overthink it. By Sarah • Sep 13, 2023 11:26 am
Movie Reviews and Previews TIFF Review: La Chimera Italian director Alice Rohrwacher (The Wonders, Happy as Lazzaro, Futura) is back with La Chimera, a film billed as a romantic drama but that also touches on slapstick comedy, heist thriller, and character study. Josh O’Connor stars as Arthur, an ex-pat Brit in 1980-whatever Italy. He’s fresh out By Sarah • Sep 12, 2023 02:19 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews TIFF Review: Hit Man Fellow Texans Richard Linklater and Glen Powell have been working together since Powell was a teenager, but their latest collaboration, Hit Man, sees them as more than just director and actor, but as co-writers and co-producers. Jumping off a 2001 Texas Monthly article in which Skip Hollandsworth profiled Gary Johnson, By Sarah • Sep 12, 2023 01:27 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews TIFF Review: Ava DuVernay’s Origin In Origin, Ava DuVernay faces an almost impossible task, to adapt not just a work of non-fiction, not just a prize-winning text, but an almost academic thematic exploration into the defining characteristic that links oppressive systems across time and continent into a feature film. Isabel Wilkerson’s book, Caste: The By Sarah • Sep 12, 2023 12:33 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews TIFF Review: Woman of the Hour Which one of you will hurt me? That is the “question under the question” of the cheesy game show, The Dating Game. How will you hurt me? That is the question at the heart of Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut, Woman of the Hour. The film, arguably the best piece By Sarah • Sep 11, 2023 03:26 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews TIFF Review: Next Goal Wins Taika Waititi's Next Goal Wins is at once his most typically Hollywood movie, and yet still possessing the quirky humor we've come to expect from the Kiwi filmmaker. Telling the (mostly) true story of the 2011 American Samoa national soccer team, Next Goal Wins depicts coach By Sarah • Sep 11, 2023 01:54 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews TIFF Review: The Boy and the Heron Legendary Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, co-founder of famed animation house Studio Ghibli, has not made a feature film since 2013’s The Wind Rises. He was believed to be retired, until earlier this year, a new film opened in Japan with virtually no fanfare. Kimitachi wa Dō Ikiru ka? (How By Sarah • Sep 11, 2023 10:09 am
Movie Reviews and Previews Tom Hardy Is Doing A Voice (with bonus Austin Butler) We are in the thick of it! Strikes! Festivals! Tom Hardy doing another f-cking silly voice! The trailer for Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeriders dropped yesterday, revealing Tom Hardy’s latest silly voice. The film is an adaptation of Danny Lyon’s photo essay of the same name, about the rise By Sarah • Sep 07, 2023 10:37 am
Business of Hollywood The CEOs are squabbling again Fall film festival season is underway, with Venice ongoing, Telluride occurring over the weekend, and TIFF kicking off this Thursday. In the midst of what should be cinema’s most glamorous fortnight, the double strike continues unabated. If anything, we’re going backwards after a series of recent false starts By Sarah • Sep 05, 2023 11:06 am
What Else What Else? We will be dark tomorrow and on Monday, September 4 in observance of Labor/Labour Day. We will be back on Tuesday, September 5. See you next week! Diane Kruger wore red to a movie premiere in France. She looks amazing, and the Fug Girls make a good point—now By Sarah • Aug 31, 2023 04:03 pm
Patrick Dempsey Ferrari is a romance It doesn’t much fit into film criticism and celebrity gossip, but I love cars. (Motorcycles, too, but the older I get, the less I can will myself onto a bike, and I 100% cannot believe I used to ride every day, like for real, how did I not die. By Sarah • Aug 31, 2023 03:33 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews Emerald Fennell’s Brideshead Emerald Fennell is back, and this time she’s not just Barbie’s pregnant friend. Following her Academy Award-winning debut film, Promising Young Woman, Fennell returns behind the camera with Saltburn, a millennial (and Millennial) film about Oliver, a young man invited to stay at his school chum’s sumptuous By Sarah • Aug 31, 2023 01:04 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews It has begun The 2023 festival season is officially open. The 80th edition of the Venice Film Festival kicked off yesterday, with a notably lighter crowd at the opening day events. Jury president Damien Chazelle was on hand, and the opening ceremony, which included a lifetime achievement award for Italian filmmaker Liliana Cavani, By Sarah • Aug 31, 2023 11:03 am
TV Updates Your semi-regular JAW thirst trap Jeremy Allen White is not my flavor, but some of you LOVE Jeremy Allen White, so here is JAW in his latest, shirtless, post-workout glory. I would, however, like all y’all JAW fans to tell me whether or not the bare feet in public is doing anything for you. By Sarah • Aug 31, 2023 10:07 am
