Debra Granik has made only three features in her career, six or seven years between each, but that small catalogue displays a filmmaker of confidence, depth, grace and uncommon quiet, with a genuine, respectful sense of place. (Kelly Reichardt is also this kind.) Where most directors would rush to fill the space, to make the […]
Jennifer Lawrence
Posted inArts + Music
Film review: Red Sparrow
Jennifer Lawrence has endured a few bad bounces lately, from Joy to Passengers to mother!, less a bad bounce than an open-faced windshield-crash. Much is being made of this less-than-stellar run, but let’s keep some things in perspective: Lawrence’s film career is just eight years old, she won a Best Actress Academy Award on her […]
Posted inArts + Music
X-Men: First Class a relaunch for mutant franchise
The fifth X-Men movie feels like a fresh start for the franchise, and not just because it’s a prequel that chronicles the origin of the mutant superhero team in the JFK era. From the early introductions of the cocky but good-hearted scientist Charles Xavier (James MacAvoy) and the vengeance-driven Holocaust survivor Erik Lensherr (Michael Fassbender), […]