Movie to hell and high water

In a good movie year — and whatever you may have heard, 2022 was such a year — I find it an agony to compile a Top 10 list . There are just too many good and great films, too many titles that I want to celebrate. Being overwhelmed by a bounty of excellence is a pleasure, one that I often experience at film festivals. And lately, whether I’m at home or at a festival, I have been struck by how much of this abundance is from women onscreen and behind the camera. We are experiencing a sea change with women and movies, a shift in numbers but also in consciousness. Female-driven movies, from women filmmakers and not, open weekly and are greeted as a matter of course rather than as aberrations; some dominate the box office, and a handful are enlivening the awards season. Despite continuing biases and barriers, women are now directing movies with a variety of budgets, topics and casts. It’s made my job as a critic more exciting. It is, I learned long ago, demoralizing and alienating to … [Read more...] about For the First Time Ever, I’m Optimistic About Women in the Movie World

KATHRYN BIGELOW’S two-fisted win at the Academy Awards for best director and best film for “The Hurt Locker” didn’t just punch through the American movie industry’s seemingly shatterproof glass ceiling; it has also helped dismantle stereotypes about what types of films women can and should direct. It was historic, exhilarating, especially for women who make movies and women who watch movies, two groups that have been routinely ignored and underserved by an industry in which most films star men and are made for and by men. It’s too early to know if this moment will be transformative — but damn, it feels so good . No matter if they’re a source of loathing and laughter, the Oscars matter as a cultural flashpoint, perhaps now more than ever. All those Oscar viewers might not be ticket buyers, but when they watched the show this year they would have heard, perhaps even for the first time, the startling, shocking, infuriating or uninteresting news — pick your degree of engagement — that … [Read more...] about How Oscar Found Ms. Right

See the article in its original context from January 31, 1999 Section Page Buy Reprints View on timesmachine TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. WHATEVER happened to Lizzie Borden? Claudia Weill? Joyce Chopra? Donna Deitch? Whatever happened to Julie Dash, Tamra Davis, Stacy Cochran, Leslie Harris, Kelly Reichardt? What all these women share is that each directed at least one -- and, in some cases, two or more -- provocative, critically acclaimed independent films, only to essentially disappear from the scene. With the exception of Ms. Davis, who went from the sexy neo-noir ''Guncrazy'' in 1992 to directing slobbering studio comedies like ''Billy Madison,'' most of these women have spent most of the last decade relegated to near obscurity, cable television or developmental limbo. Not one of these women has the sort of sustained filmmaking career enjoyed by their male counterparts, independent directors such as John … [Read more...] about FILM; Even in Independent Film, A Suit Is a Suit Is a Suit

Last year, The Daily Beast published an article titled “The Rom-Com Revival Is Real!” in reference to the announcement that Richard Gere , Diane Keaton , Susan Sarandon , and more would be teaming up for a love story together. That movie, Maybe I Do , has now arrived. After seeing the film, I insist that we rescind this headline—even if the revival of the romantic comedy does exist , it’s got nothing to do with this godawful film. One might think that, by combining big stars like Gere, Keaton, Sarandon, Emma Roberts , William H. Macy , and Luke Bracey, the movie doesn’t even need to be good. Can’t it survive off of star power alone? No. Absolutely not. We saw this happen with Ticket to Paradise , last year’s utter trainwreck featuring Julia Roberts and George Clooney as two divorced parents bickering at their daughter’s wedding. No matter how splashy your stars may be, nothing can make up for a terrible, unfunny script devoid of all romance. The one thing … [Read more...] about Diane Keaton and Susan Sarandon Destroy the Rom-Com in Cynical Mess ‘Maybe I Do’

The phrase "Sundance movie" gets tossed around as a pejorative, describing a modest film with a recognizable blend of melancholy and quirkiness in which characters tend to achieve self-discovery in approximately 90 tidy minutes. A Little Prayer , which premiered at the festival on Monday, fits that reductive characterization perfectly, but it's capable of softening even the hardest heart. This is the right kind of Sundance movie, one whose low stakes yield high emotional rewards. A Little Prayer 's closest analogue is another worthwhile Sundance prototype: Junebug, the 2005 charmer that accelerated Amy Adams' career. Both movies share a writer in Angus MacLachlan, who is an even-handed observer of small towns and the everyday people within them. MacLachlan also directed this one, and now that Sony Pictures Classics has acquired it for theatrical release , A Little Prayer is poised to be one of 2023's indie breakouts. Junebug and A Little Prayer share more than … [Read more...] about ‘A Little Prayer’ Is Jane Levy’s ‘Junebug’ at Sundance

After the military defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, evidence of its crimes still had to be systematically gathered for the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal. Jean-Christophe Klotz’s methodical documentary “Filmmakers for the Prosecution” retraces the steps of two Office of Strategic Services members tasked with this enormous responsibility: Stuart Schulberg (later a TV producer) and his brother, Budd (who went on to his own storied career in Hollywood). Part of the movie recounts the travails of documenting the Third Reich in the war’s ruinous aftermath and the challenge of tracking down Nazi records before they could be destroyed. Stuart Schulberg’s nervous letters home express the difficulty of completing the project in time for the trials, which aimed to damn the Nazis with their own imagery. To this point Klotz’s film (which has the feel of a teaching aid) largely belongs to the documentary category of archival adventure, with stories of journeys into a salt mine and encounters with … [Read more...] about ‘Filmmakers for the Prosecution’ Review: Exposing Third Reich Atrocities