Monthly Archives: June 2024

Review: Bad Boys: Ride or Die and The Watchers

Posted on June 21, 2024 by philipbrasor

Since the last installment in this bombastic comedy-action franchise practically determined that its two heroes, the buddy cop team of Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) and Mike Lowery (Will Smith), were on the retirement track, this fourth episode feels kind of … Continue reading →

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Review: The Holdovers

Posted on June 20, 2024 by philipbrasor

Though he’s made a number of movies I don’t like much—and I couldn’t get past the first episode of Billions—Paul Giamatti for me is maybe the most pleasurable American film actor to watch. He never resorts to realism, and, in … Continue reading →

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Review: One Life

Posted on June 19, 2024 by philipbrasor

The unsung historical hero is irresistible, though it takes a discerning interpreter to make such a subject both relevant and moving to sensibilities that have developed in the meantime. Spielberg set the template with Schindler’s List by going big in … Continue reading →

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Review: Louder Than You Think: A Lo-Fi History of Gary Young & Pavement

Posted on June 15, 2024 by philipbrasor

Here’s a documentary that develops its thesis on several levels of lowered expectations, as if the director, Jed I. Rosenberg, felt he had to hedge his bets owing to the central focus of attention, Gary Young, the first drummer for … Continue reading →

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Review: How to Blow Up a Pipeline

Posted on June 14, 2024 by philipbrasor

Some movies are so carefully conceived and worked out that they can feel contrived due to their meticulous attention to detail. The script of this eco-thriller by director Daniel Goldhaber, based on a manifesto by Andreas Malm, brings together a … Continue reading →

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Review: IF

Posted on June 13, 2024 by philipbrasor

Though the title of this family fantasy stands for “imaginary friends,” the purport of the conditional conjunction lends the film a wistful character that suits its dramatic purposes more adequately. By rights, the plot is a downer. Twelve-year-old Bea (Cailey … Continue reading →

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Review: Mr. Nelson on the North Side

Posted on June 8, 2024 by philipbrasor

The Japanese distributor of this 2021, 68-minute documentary obviously picked it up to release it theatrically in Japan on Prince’s 66th birthday, which is June 7. You’d be hard pressed to find much information about it on the internet, despite … Continue reading →

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Review: Challengers

Posted on June 7, 2024 by philipbrasor

Though much of the talk about Luca Guadagnino’s popular tennis movie is about how sexy it is, I found myself fixating on those elements that spoke to the characters’ class and wealth—or lack thereof. A number of reviewers have said … Continue reading →

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Review: Drive-Away Dolls

Posted on June 6, 2024 by philipbrasor

The Coen brothers’ films always seem to flirt with pastiche without actually going the distance, so it’s interesting to watch Ethan Coen, working with his partner and editor, Tricia Cooke, rather than Joel, go deep into not just one genre … Continue reading →

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Review: The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

Posted on June 5, 2024 by philipbrasor

Often attendant information about a movie that has nothing to do with its content will alter one’s outlook of it. My misgivings about this heartfelt but unconvincing British melodrama were alleviated somewhat when I learned it was based on a … Continue reading →

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