Category Archives: Film Listings/Ratings

As much as they might love their childhood home in the French country side, Adrienne (Juliet Binoche), Frederic (Charles Berling) and Jeremie (Jeremie Renier) are grown up now. They have their own families and goals. One of them is based in China, the other is a journalist in New York. The third sibling is basedContinue reading “Summer Hours (Olivier Assayas – 2008) A-“

His last one was Blackkklansman and now this ambitious piece of work! Good to see Lee back. This might not be perfect and has it’s meandering flaws but is so good on so many levels. It is worth it if for Delroy Lindo’s performance alone.

Two senior high school girls, last day of school and on their way to college. When they find out that pretty much everyone in their high school year is getting into a good school they feel like they missed out on all the “fun” the other kids had. So they decide to just make upContinue reading “Booksmart (Olivia Wild – 2019) A-“

An unconventional documentary based on an unfinished novel by James Baldwin. It walks through the civil rights struggle through the lives and deaths of three of its leaders (Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Medgar Evers). It’s a poetic imagining -I think- of what the unfinished Baldwin book might’ve been. In any case it is aContinue reading “I Am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck – 2016) B+”

They have been married 45 years. Their anniversary is Saturday. the film opens the week before that. The couple, Kate and Geoff, is played perfectly by Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay. Geoff receives a letter that the body of his long ago girlfriend was found. He lost her on a hiking trip through the SwissContinue reading “45 Years (Michael Haigh – 2015) B+”

The IMDB description for this is “The story of Venezuelan revolutionary Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, who founded a worldwide terrorist organization and raided the 1975 OPEC meeting”….well it is one way to summarize a 6 hour or so epic. This is a long spanning tour de force by the lead (Edgar Ramirez) who does an exceptionalContinue reading “Carlos (Olivier Assayas – 2010) A”

Good story about Cuban spies living and operating in Cuba to infiltrate the Cuban Castro resistance here. I had never heard of it. The actors do a great job and Assayas has not made a film I did not appreciate even if this one is not in the same tier as his others that I’veContinue reading “WASP Network (Olivier Assayas – 2020) B-“

She was an Olympic hopeful skier, had a freak accident and ended up running very high stakes poker games and eventually the target of the FBI. It is very good and solidly written and performed. There is one specific scene where Kevin Costner delivers a touching and and perfect monologue while sitting on a benchContinue reading “Molly’s Game (Aaron Sorkin – 2017) B”