Reviews

We may find the animation amazing, but the film itself is captivated by the camaraderie that exists between humans and dogs. Dogs are perpetual devotion devices that return exponentially more consideration to kind people than kind people give to them. They are also capable of returning exponentially more malice or fear as well. Dogs are remarkably gifted at mirroring human emotions and responding in kind.

In a small town called Eureka Springs, nestled in the Ozark Mountains of rural Arkansas, a miracle takes place nearly every day: People with wildly different beliefs and values manage to peacefully co-exist.

“Pacific Rim: Uprising” is smart filmmaking, and smart filmmaking is all the more important when the material is so pulpy.

Jinn, which premiered at the 2018 SXSW Film Festival, is many things. It is an African-American story. It is a Muslim story. It is a mother-daughter story. It is a universal story. In many ways, though, this complex and excellent film comes down to a simple question: What’s wrong with pepperoni pizza?

Randal Hendricks is in trouble. Within the first few minutes of “Number 37,” a South African film which premiered at the 2018 SXSW Festival, we learn that Randal owes thousands of dollars to a dangerous loan shark. What ensues in this tense and gripping thriller is both familiar, with obvious shades of “Rear Window,” and utterly original.

“Summer in the Forest” is at once a loving portrayal and a revolution. It is a declaration of a truth we bear witness to; whispered through the beauty of nature, noticed in the least of these, and championed by those who would “waste their time” with those the world has no patience for.

Set in the world of contemporary art dealing, “The Price of Everything” tells a tale by turns amusing and chilling. What happens when art moves from an object of appreciation to a commodity fetish, when people with more money than sense swoop in and insure that great works will never see the light of day, and remain trapped on the wall of a New York penthouse?

“Black Panther” is about a good a movie as Marvel has produced, but it saddens me to see Coogler’s bravura drenched in Disney/Marvel sauce.

One hundred years ago, the town of Bisbee, Arizona – a major copper mining site – experienced a worker strike, but the mine owners, aided by the sheriff, rounded up over a thousand strikers, stuck them on a train, and deported them to the middle of the New Mexican desert. In this documentary, the current citizens of Bisbee recreate the horrifying events of July 12, 1917.

The short film categories at each year’s Academy Awards are consistently home to some of the best filmmaking represented in the entire program.

“I wouldn’t believe it if it weren’t my story.” Interview subjects in “Three Identical Strangers” keep sounding this refrain, and with good reason.

“Annihilation” isn’t very forthcoming, and your enjoyment of it will likely depend on how comfortable you are with its curious combination of dreadful aura and jump scares.

“The Task” will inevitably divide audiences. As it stands, it’s near the top of my ranking of this year’s True/False lineup, but many people walked out of the screening I attended, and I heard a lot of muttering on the way out afterward among those who stayed. This division is appropriate for a film designed to provoke both its subjects and its audience.

“Black Panther” engages in a kind of unabashed truth-telling that is less about being prophetic or preachy than it is about being honest. Through Ryan Coogler’s deft directing and writing, the story makes a brilliant move to set the film’s primary conflict within Wakanda itself. The film comments on racism, representation, and black power by its mere existence, and refuses to apologize.

“Una Mujer Fantástica” interweaves human grief and sexuality in ways I haven’t seen on screen, while managing to dynamically portray the strength and bravery of the trans community.