Category Archives: Recommended

#AJFF2021 Review: Sublet

November 19, 2021 flawintheiris

Directed by Eytan Fox | Written by Fox and Itay Segal | 89 min | Atlantic Jewish Film Festival Michael (John Benjamin Hickey, one of those "it's that guy" familiar-face character actors) arrives at Ben Gurion Airport just outside Tel Aviv. He takes a cab into the city and finds the apartment he's supposed to…Read More

Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy review — Anthology spins melancholy, romantic tales

November 18, 2021 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi | 121 min | Carbon Arc Cinema The full, translated title is actually Ryûsuke Hamaguchi's Short Stories: Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, but that's a mouthful. The Japanese director's well established in his home country, a feature filmmaker and documentarian. His earlier work is unseen by me, but if it's…Read More

Passing review — Powerful performances in nuanced racial drama

November 15, 2021 flawintheiris

Directed by Rebecca Hall, with Hall adapting the novel by Nella Larsen | 98 min | Netflix The first feature by actor-turned director Rebecca Hall reportedly speaks to something in Hall's own experience, a family member who had hidden their ethnicity. The passing in this case is the story of a Black woman passing as…Read More

The Harder They Fall review — A shotgun blast of good times

November 6, 2021 flawintheiris

Directed by Jeymes Samuel | Written by Samuel and Boaz Yakin | 130 min | Netflix Westerns with Black casts aren't unprecedented, but they are a rarity. That's not all that makes this picture special — Director Jeymes Samuel, also a musican, tells the story with action and style to spare, fuel-injected with a hip-hop…Read More

Dune review — A cinematic feast

October 22, 2021 flawintheiris

Directed by Denis Villeneuve | Written by Villeneuve, Jon Spaihts, and Eric Roth, based on the Frank Herbert book | 155 min | Netflix Oh, how we have waited for Dune. Of all the 2020 features postponed by the pandemic, this is the one I was most looking forward to seeing, and seeing on the…Read More

Copshop review — B-movie siege thriller hits every target

September 27, 2021 flawintheiris

Directed by Joe Carnahan | Written by Carnahan, Kurt McLeod, and Mark Williams | 107 min | Amazon Prime Action director Carnahan is on a bit of a roll given his last picture, time-loop thriller Boss Level, was quite a bit of fun. This time out he reteams with Frank Grillo for a picture that is…Read More

#FIN2021 Reviews — The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, Mothering Sunday

September 24, 2021 flawintheiris

The Electrical Life of Louis Wain | Directed by Will Sharpe | Written by Sharpe and Simon Stephenson | 111 min | Amazon Prime Not that we needed any further confirmation, but Benedict Cumberbatch is really good at portraying eccentric real-life period Brits, from Alan Turing to Thomas Edison to Greville Wynne. It's certainly not…Read More

#FIN2021 Reviews — Wife Of A Spy, The Worst Person In The World

September 19, 2021 flawintheiris

Wife Of A Spy | Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa | Written by Kurosawa, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, and Tadashi Nohara | 115 min Kobe, 1940. The military presence in Japan is cracking down on free thinking merchants and amateur filmmakers like Yusaku Fukuhara (Issey Takahashi), who heads to Manchuria with his nephew on a business trip. Is…Read More

#FIN2021 Review: Memoria

September 18, 2021 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul | 136 min It's been more than a decade since I've seen a film by the revered Thai filmmaker with the challenging-to-pronounce name. It was his Palme d'Or-winning Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, a picture that is delightfully resistant to the tyranny of traditional narrative. His…Read More

The Card Counter review — Paul Schrader’s all in with dark thriller

September 9, 2021 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Paul Schrader | 109 min | In Cinemas "Nothing can justify what we did. If you were there you’d understand that. Otherwise, there is no understanding.” This is a little truism spoken by William Tell (Oscar Issac) —his surname's actually Tolliver, but his nom-de-pari is the poorly chosen Tell. He's a professional…Read More