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BlacKkKlansman

“Where does one begin a discussion on a Spike Lee joint that draws immediate parallels between its recent history and our immediate present? I suppose you could start there, but BlacKkKlansman has so much going for it that it seems somehow the most obvious entry point. Here is a film that manages to ” read more

Made in America

“She’s a black intellectual! He’s a scummy car salesman! Together, they unwittingly had a daughter through IVF! Will these whacky two work it out and come together as a modern family? Find out on Made in America!   Coming this fall to CBS!   Ok, not really, but Made in America does play lik” read more

Crystal Visions… The Very Best of Stevie Nicks

“If you ever wanted a single-disc collection of Stevie Nicks’ work with both Fleetwood Mac and as a solo artist, then maybe this is for you. There’s heartfelt intent behind the cherry picking of Mac songs mixed in with the obvious choices from here solo material, but the execution leaves somethin” read more

Cold War

“Watching this is like reading a Junichiro Tanizaki short story: you’re enthralled by all the ways that love can blossom into something toxic and obsessive. After all, we are witnessing a couple break up then crash back into each other’s lives repeatedly over a fifteen year span. It’s a slim na” read more

At Eternity’s Gate

“God, Willem Dafoe really is one of our most undervalued actors. Ignore for a second that he’s about twenty-five years older than Vincent van Gogh when he died and look at his performance here. He’s been this good for so long that it’s easy to forget just how captivating he is in close-up, how ” read more

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

“I was texting back and forth with a good friend about the film’s I had yet to watch in order to complete my yearly Oscar challenge. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs was one of them. Not for any deep reason beyond it was on Netflix so what was the rush, really? I think he succinctly put it best in that” read more

Fire Song

“Does it mildly pain me to take a few knocks against Fire Song? Yes, it does. I mean, how often are you greeted with a film about queer native characters? I’m sure there’s more out there, but they don’t exactly leap out of the film festival circuit limbo into the wider world very often, now do ” read more

Mirai

“I love this movie for its premise but cannot wrap my brain around its execution. Ostensibly a family-themed animated film, I can’t picture this resonating with a child audience or keeping the adults enthralled. It exists in the no man’s land between these twin points.   Granted, the fantasy ” read more

Isle of Dogs

“The artisanal process of stop-motion feels like a natural medium for a director as fussily detailed and idiosyncratic as Wes Anderson. His handcrafted forays into the medium have produced two distinct films that both provide a melancholic, winsome experience. He manages to, as Chuck Jones once descr” read more

American Life

“The twenty years between her scrappy, minimalist disco self-titled debut and this release, her ninth studio album, is an eternity as far as pop singers go. You didn’t exactly see Paula Abdul, Cyndi Lauper, or Taylor Dayne maintaining the same amount of chart presence, if not outright dominance. Ma” read more

Design of a Decade: 1986 – 1996

“She was nineteen when she released Control in 1986, a declarative statement of purpose and proclamation that her brothers weren’t the only pop geniuses in the family. Janet Jackson’s “I’m a grown woman” mission statement seemed a little odd coming from someone that young, but her resolve a” read more