Mack & Rita
Many of us have been called “old souls.” We are the people who feel out of step with our times. Director Katie Aselton’s Mack & Rita is a charming new comedy for us old gals that provides a refreshing update to the magical comedies of yesteryear. Continue Reading →
Bruised
The best sports movies uplift and invigorate. They often take their formulaic structures to greater heights than what seems achievable. They transcend the films that they’re modeled after, pushing forward different definitions of winners and losers. The classics, Rocky, Hoosiers, A League of Their Own, offer the catharsis that sports can bring; they unite an audience in rapturous applause, even if the underdog doesn’t win the title fight. Unfortunately, Halle Berry’s directorial debut, Bruised, neither elevates nor shifts this formula, resigned to a middling existence likely to get lost among the endless titles shuffling through Netflix. Continue Reading →
Port Authority
It doesn’t take more than a minute or two for Port Authority to start dangling its main theme right in front of the audience. On probation and having just gotten off the bus in New York City, Paul (Fionn Whitehead) roams the station, showing strangers a picture and asking if they’ve seen a woman. But you see, it’s not like she’s missing. He’s the one who’s missing, the woman in the picture being his sister, Sara (Louisa Krause), who’s refused to pick him up and take him in. He has no family. The movie really wants to make sure you get it. What makes it hard to buy is how inorganic Danielle Lessovitz’s feature debut is. Continue Reading →