Category Archives: Movies

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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Review: The Zone of Interest

Posted on May 23, 2024 by philipbrasor

By now everyone knows how director Jonathan Glazer keeps the horrors of the Auschwitz death camp out of sight in his movie about the commandant of the camp, Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel), and his family, who live in well-appointed digs … Continue reading →

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Review: The Teachers’ Lounge

Posted on May 17, 2024 by philipbrasor

You have to hand it to the Germans. Their capacity for self-examination, which often leads to self-condemnation, seems almost limitless, and can lead to inadvertent injustices, as seen by the way the country’s strict definition of antisemitism has recently affected … Continue reading →

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Review: Bob Marley: One Love

Posted on May 16, 2024 by philipbrasor

In some ways, this movie about reggae legend Bob Marley, which takes in the years 1976-78—after he had already become a superstar—relies on narrative notes that one doesn’t usually find in big budget biopics. It seems more interested in capturing … Continue reading →

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Review: Anyone But You

Posted on May 10, 2024 by philipbrasor

In its own super-contrived way, the plot dynamics of Will Gluck’s rom-com, Anyone But You, should offer assurances to those of us who have always appreciated the genre for the way it’s challenged good screenwriters to come up with witty … Continue reading →

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Review: The Lost Weekend: A Love Story

Posted on May 9, 2024 by philipbrasor

In 1973 and 1974, John Lennon lived apart from Yoko Ono during a licentious interlude that Lennon himself dubbed his “lost weekend.” His companion was May Pang, a Chinese-American woman who had become Lennon and Ono’s personal assistant sometime before … Continue reading →

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Review: Honey Sweet

Posted on May 3, 2024 by philipbrasor

Yoo Hae-jin is one of those movie stars who would seem to flourish as a character actor but somehow is flourishing as a leading man; though, granted, the people he plays are not what you would normally think of as … Continue reading →

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Review: Green Border

Posted on May 2, 2024 by philipbrasor

As up-to-the-minute filmmaking goes, Agneiszka Holland’s take on the migrant crisis in northern Europe exudes a professionalism that tends to overwhelm its harrowing themes. Though the moral and humanitarian stakes are never in question, it’s easy to fall into the … Continue reading →

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Review: System Crasher

Posted on April 27, 2024 by philipbrasor

With her debut film, German director Nora Fingscheidt demonstrates unequivocally that she isn’t fooling around. The title is a kind of inside joke among social workers in Germany, as it refers to a case that basically breaks the carefully wrought … Continue reading →

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