Hustlers strips systemic sexism down to the boner
#TIFF19: Hustlers Movie Review
A team of smart pole dancers fleeced the wolves of Wall Street by exploiting their natural resources, but this female revenge story based on a New York magazine piece doesn’t grab at easy conclusions. Director Lorene Scafaria teases out the hard reality of gender inequality, one lap dance at a time.
Review: The Kitchen is a woman’s place, indeed
Movie Review: The Kitchen
Part revenge-quest, part sisterhood of the travelling pants with pistols, The Kitchen has so many male constructs sewn into its inseam, first-time director Andrea Berloff doesn’t have a lot of room to move. It’s a man’s cut, yet but makes it comfortable by wearing it all a size too large, boyfriend style, writes critic Katherine Monk.
Review: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood…
Movies: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Quentin Tarantino cements his brand into every boring, bloody frame of his latest picture, which frames a Brad Pitt-Leonardo DiCaprio buddy story against the backdrop of the Manson murders. Critic Katherine Monk says the acting is heroic, but the movie is just plain bad.
The Art of Self-Defense kicks with fists while crunching numbers
Movie Review: The Art of Self-Defense
Director Riley Stearns bares some surprising truths in a predictable revenge story that evolves into a forensic audit of the masculine identity as Jesse Eisenberg plays a meek accountant who helps a karate instructor reconcile the books.
Uncle Ed Nelson’s harmonica and the Zeffirelli-sphere
Movies/Tribute: Franco Zeffirelli and Ed Nelson
The late Italian director Franco Zeffirelli did more than inspire a generation of high school students to see their own truth in Shakespeare, he gave a veteran English teacher a good reason to blow his musical Hoehner -- and, in turn, blow your mind.
Spider-Man Far From Home — with excess baggage
Movie Review: Spider-Man Far From Home
The web-slinger gets sticky in a whole new set of places in a so-so sequel that finds a sweet spot in the unspoken codes of masculinity, and what it means to be Spider-Man and awkward teen, Peter Parker, simultaneously.
The Dead Don’t Die Doesn’t End Well
Movie review: The Dead Don’t Die
Jim Jarmusch’s send-up of horror tropes feels like a basic lesson in what zombie movies symbolize — a cultural descent into empty consumerism and brain-devouring distractions -- but little more.
