If the Oscars are your bag, you can catch up on the Best Picture nominees at various theaters this week. (My advice, as always, is to see the good movies and skip the bad ones.) But there's plenty else happening this week, including the Italian Film Festival and, if you can stomach it, a 50-year-old mockumentary about a militarized U.S.
Special Screenings
Thursday, February 27
20 Years In The Crypt : Embedded On Tour With Dead Moon (2025)
Cloudland
The legendary Portland, Oregon, band, filmed in 2001. $13. 6:30 p.m. More info here.
Babe: A Pig in the City (1995)
Emagine Willow Creek
Babe: Beyond Thunderdome. $4.60. 12 p.m. More info here.
Wild at Heart (1990)
Emagine Willow Creek
Did you know the band in this movie is from here? Expect our exclusive interview sometime this week! $11.60. 7:30 & 8:30 p.m. More info here.
Natural Born Killers (1994)
Grandview 1&2
So glad the days of having to take Oliver Stone seriously are far behind us. Also Sunday. $14.44. 9:15 p.m. More info here.
Duel (1971)
Heights Theater
A crazed trucker is after Dennis Weaver! $12. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Il tempo che ci vuole (The Time it Takes) (2024)
Main Cinema
Francesca Comencini recalls growing up with her father, the director Luigi Comencini. Part of the Italian Film Festival. $40 (includes food and music at 6 p.m.) 7:45 p.m. More info here.
The Princess Bride (1987)
Main Cinema
Wallace Shawn: Great nepo baby or greatest nepo baby? Sold out. Pre-show music from Leslie Vincent at 7:30 p.m. Movie at 8 p.m. More info here.
Friday, February 28
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
AMC Rosedale 14/AMC Southdale 16/Emagine Willow Creek/Marcus West End
Pretty sure this is the one about the Chamber of Secrets. Showtimes and more info here.
Oppenheimer (2023)
AMC Southdale
Rereleased in IMAX. Through Wednesday. 5:40 p.m. More info here.
Beethoven (1992)
Emagine Willow Creek
Ugh, enough with the biopics already. All week. $4.60. 12 p.m. More info here.
Semidei (Flesh and Bronze) (2023)
Main Cinema
A documentary about how the 1972 discovery of two ancient Greek statues changed a small town. Part of the Italian Film Festival. $14. 2 p.m. More info here.
Tutto quello che vuoi (Friends by Chance) (2017)
Main Cinema
A ne’er-do-well becomes the caretaker for a poet with Alzheimer’s. Part of the Italian Film Festival. $14. 6 p.m. More info here.
Un altro ferragosto (Another Summer Holiday) (2024)
Main Cinema
Times and customs change on an Italian island in this sequel to Ferie d’agosto (August Vacation). Part of the Italian Film Festival. $14. 8:30 p.m. More info here.
Abominable (2024)
Marcus West End
Help the Yeti find his family! Through Monday. Showtimes and more info here.
Boogie Nights (1997)
Trylon
Take a trip back to the golden age of pornography. $8. Friday-Saturday, Monday-Tuesday 7 p.m. Sunday 3 & 6:15 p.m. More info here.
Punishment Park (1971)
Walker Art Center
The National Guard chases counterculture members through the desert for sport. Also Saturday. $12/$15. 7 p.m. More info here.
Saturday, March 1
Interstellar (2014)
Alamo Drafthouse
The answer to the equation is… looooooove. $10. 2:15 p.m. More info here.
Shrek (2001)
Alamo Drafthouse/Emagine Willow Creek
I wonder if I’ll ever get around to seeing this movie. Alamo: $20.59. 11:30 a.m. More info here. Emagine: Also Wednesday. $10.60. 12 & 5 p.m. More info here.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
AMC Rosedale 14/AMC Southdale 16/Emagine Willow Creek/Marcus West End
This is supposed to be the good one, right? Showtimes and more info here.
Nosferatu (1927)
Emagine Willow Creek
Synched to Radiohead. ‘Cause Orloc’s a creep. $12.50. 6 p.m. More info here.
Hollywood’s Big Night
Emagine Willow Creek
No, they can’t legally call it an Oscars watch party but that’s what it is. 6 p.m. More info here.
Io la conoscevo bene (I Knew Her Well) (1965)
Main Cinema
A woman moves to Rome to become a celebrity. Part of the Italian Film Festival. $14. 11 a.m. More info here.
Familia (2024)
Main Cinema
A young man from a troubled family joins a fascist gang. Part of the Italian Film Festival. $14. 2 p.m. More info here.
Ricomincio da tre (I’m Starting From Three) (1981)
Main Cinema
A shy man moves to Florence to start his life again. Part of the Italian Film Festival. $14. 5 p.m. More info here.
C’è ancora domani (There’s Still Tomorrow) (2023)
Main Cinema
The 2023 Italian box office smash. Part of the Italian Film Festival. $14. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Leprechaun in the Hood (2000)
Main Cinema
A very seasonal Midnight Mayhem. $10. 10 p.m. More info here.
Best Picture Marathon 2025: Day Two
Marcus West End
Watch the 2025 Oscar-nominated Animated Shorts, Anora, Conclave, Wicked, and The Brutalist all in a row—if you DARE.10 a.m. More info here.
Ive The First World Tour (2025)
Marcus West End
Catch the K-pop gals’ 2023-2024 tour on the big screen. 3:10 p.m. More info here.
Kids’ Film Fair 2025
Walker Art Center
All day free screenings for kids. Free. 10 a.m-3 p.m. More info here.
Sunday, March 2
Parasite (2019)
Alamo Drafthouse
What if the rich people are the real parasites? Ever thought of that? $11.50. 12:10 p.m. More info here.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
AMC Rosedale 14/AMC Southdale 16/Emagine Willow Creek/Marcus West End
How many of these damn movies are there? Showtimes and more info here.
Il postino (The Postman) (1994)
Main Cinema
Not the Kevin Costner movie. Part of the Italian Film Festival. $14. 11:15 a.m. More info here.
Sei fratelli (Family Matters) (2024)
Main Cinema
Six half-siblings reunite after their father’s death. Part of the Italian Film Festival. $14. 2:30 p.m. More info here.
El paraiso (2023)
Main Cinema
A mother and her adult son live on the fringes of Rome as part of Italy’s Colombian diaspora. Part of the Italian Film Festival. $14. 4:30 p.m. More info here.
Gloria! (2024)
Main Cinema
Orphan girls invent pop music in 1800. Part of the Italian Film Festival. $14. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Straight Outta Compton (1989)
Marcus West End
As flattering a biopic as NWA could ask for. Or require. 3:10 p.m. More info here.
Just Mercy (1988)
Marcus West End
Michael B. Jordan is a crusading attorney. 6 p.m. More info here.
Monday, March 3
Titane (2021)
Alamo Drafthouse
Body horror done right. $13.50. 7 p.m. More info here.
Pet Sematary (1989)
Emagine Willow Creek
I don't wanna be buried there either, Dee Dee. $7.50. 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Secret Movie
Lagoon Cinema
Here’s a hint: It’s 115 minutes long. $5. 7 p.m. More info here.
Tuesday, March 4
The Batman (2022)
Alamo Drafthouse
Sorry, this guy does not seem like that great a detective. $16.50. 6 p.m. More info here.
The Ballad of Wallis Island (2025)
Main Cinema
A rich eccentric tries to reunite his favorite folk duo. Free for Film Society members. 7 p.m. More info here.
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
Parkway Theater
OK, I love the Parkway’s March series: Movies With Colons. They mean the punctuation mark, perv. $9/$12. Trivia at 7:30 p.m. Movie at 8 p.m. More info here.
Wednesday, March 5
Snowpiecer (2013)
Alamo Drafthouse
I love the way it friggin’ pierces the snow. $13.50. 7 p.m. More info here.
From Ground Zero (2024)
Bryant Lake Bowl
A collection of the work of 22 Palestinian filmmakers. Part of Mizna’s Insurgent Transmissions series. $5-$15 donation. 7 p.m. More info here.
Tape Freaks
Trylon
Damn, every Tape Freaks through June is sold out. $5. 7 p.m. More info here.
Opening
Follow the links for showtimes.
Brothers After War
An Iraq war vet reunites with his fellow soldiers.
Ex-Husbands
A dentist crashes his son’s bachelor party.
Last Breath
I am both claustrophobic and asthmatic so, no, I won’t be watching this movie about folks trapped at the bottom of the ocean.
Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX -Beginning-
Not a typo.
My Dead Friend Zoe
A veteran keeps seeing her dead friend.
No Address
Keywords: “Billy Baldwin,” “faith-based.”
Riff Raff
The past returns to haunt a reformed criminal.
Superboys of Malegaon
A filmmaker gathers his town together to make a movie.
Ongoing in Local Theaters
Follow the links for showtimes.
Anora
From Kitana Kiki Rodriguez’s enraged trans sex worker in Tangerine to Simon Rex’s washed up porn star in Red Rocket, Sean Baker knows how to let a character loose upon a movie, and Mikey Madison’s Ani may be the most fully realized of Baker’s high-powered, self-deluded survivors. A stripper and occasional escort whose charm and sheer self-determination haven’t failed her yet, she’s eking out a life in Brooklyn’s least glamorous southern reaches. (Sheepshead Bay, Brighton Beach, and Coney Island are captured in all their drab, offseason outer-borough-ness.) Her life changes after a dance for a Russian oligarch’s son parlays into a paid fuck, which in turn goes so well he hires her for an extended stint. Baker captures their whirlwind spree through all forms of excess, ending with a Vegas wedding, as an audiovisual sugar rush that makes Pretty Woman’s shopping montage look like amateur hour. But when Ivan’s parents find out, they sic his handlers on him; he runs off like the spoiled little fuckboy we always knew he was and Ani is left to unleash her rage on the hired muscle as they hunt for him. Madison can be as subtle here as she was on Pamela Adlon’s Better Things and even more furious than she was in Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood before Tarantino thought it’d be a hoot to immolate her with a flamethrower. This decade, we’ve seen plenty of commoners enter the worlds of the wealthy, often ending with fantasies of vengeance. Anora’s trip through the looking glass ends on a far more ambiguous note. A
Becoming Led Zeppelin
I’d hoped that the sensory bludgeoning of IMAX Zep would be ideal Super Bowl counterprogramming last Sunday, but this all-too-authorized doc (no sex or drugs or mudsharks) is way scarcer on live footage than I’d been led to believe. Well, actually there’s lots of footage (and hell, I’d watch silent film of John Bonham slapping and stomping) but too much of it is set to the studio recordings. The ’60s studio recordings, that is—Becoming Led Zeppelin is true to its name, wrapping up with the band’s Royal Albert Hall homecoming in 1970, which I’d honestly rather watch in full rather than listen to so much jawing from three elderly Brits who really need to get over a certain 1968 Rolling Stone review already. (At least give me visuals of the wonderfully sloppy Eddie Cochran covers that are instead relegated to the credits.) Those studio LPs do sound great over a cineplex soundsystem, of course, but first you’ve got to wade through 45 minutes about skiffle and life as a ’60s session man in London. Some of that's engaging enough, but sorry but I did not pay $20 to see and hear Lonnie Donegan and Lulu in The World’s Most Immersive Movie Experience. B
The Brutalist (read the full review here)
Brady Corbet’s aspiring epic tracks the disillusionment of a man who believed himself beyond illusion. László Tóth (Adrien Brody, once more a heroic European Jew) is a Bauhaus-tutored architect, Buchenwald survivor, and recent immigrant in Philadelphia. Into his life strides Harrison Van Buren (Guy Pearce), a Bucks County nouveaux with a pseud’s hunger for as much expert-approved culture as money can buy. He enlists his pedigreed discovery to design and construct a massive community center for the suburban backwater of Doylestown. The Brutalist is a film about grandiosity that also aspires to it. There are tremendous moments, in which far from subtle images communicate boldly what language cannot, that only a filmmaker gifted with a certain degree of self-importance can achieve. But on the back end it loses the shape of a masterpiece, and the sturdy facsimile of a greatness we'd been watching reveals itself as something lumpier and less monumental. And for a film supposedly about ideas, The Brutalist is strangely devoid of them, unless you count “rich people will fuck you over,” “Americans hate foreigners,” and “the Holocaust!” B
Captain America: Brave New World
The Captain America movies are where the MCU gets “serious,” where comic book idealism clashes with the dark side of U.S. history, where unfettered heroism encounters the restraining forces of bureaucracy. With Anthony Mackie inheriting the shield, Brave New World adds race to that equation. After shouldering endless Steve Rogers comparisons, Mackie's Sam Wilson gets a little speech where he wonders if he'll ever be enough, while for contrast we have Isaiah Bradley (Carl Bradley), an older Black super soldier who’d been imprisoned by the U.S. government. Meanwhile, President Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford) nearly gets us into a war with Japan (couldn’t be China—Disney needs that big overseas market) over adamantium, a new substa—ah, you know, don’t worry about it. Since in the real world, an authoritarian prez is seeking to purge the military (and everywhere else) of non-whites while saber-rattling with the nation’s historic allies, theoretically the film’s themes should resonate, at least in a half-assed pop culture thinkpiece kinda way. But this slapdash entry is more concerned with callbacks to the MCU D-list like the Eternals and 2008's The Incredible Hulk. Its one big reveal (unless you’re genuinely wondering, “Will Liv Tyler appear?”) was torpedoed by the need to fill seats: This would have been 10 times more fun if we didn’t know Ford was gonna Hulk out at the end, but the theaters would have been ten times emptier if the trailers didn’t spoil that. Brave New World is about one thing only: The MCU struggling to justify its continued existence. C
A Complete Unknown (read the full review here)
Timothée Chalamet’s relative success here—he gets that Bob Dylan himself has always been a guy performing as Bob Dylan—is just one reason that James Mangold’s new biopic is so relatively un-embarrassing. The source material also helps: Elijah Wald’s Dylan Goes Electric! is a thoroughly researched and reported account of Newport ’65 that’s preceded by an even-handed evaluation of what was at stake. Wald represents the ethos of the folk scene with a respect that rockist triumphalists could never see past their ingrained generational narratives to allow, and the film’s climax, Dylan’s amplified defiance of the Newport folkies, doesn’t feel as triumphant as we might expect. Dylan comes off less as a genius coming into his own than a cornered, confused guy lashing out at whoever comes closest; when his pal Bobby Neuwirth asks him point blank who he wants to be, it’s hard not hear a hollowness in the defiance of Dylan's reply: “Whoever they don’t want me to be.” When he returns to visit Woody Guthrie one last time after Newport, reflecting on what he’s done and lost, Bobby Zimmerman is now as completely Bob Dylan as Anakin Skywalker is Darth Vader at the end of Revenge of the Sith. How does it feel? Not great, Bob. B
Conclave
Edward Berger may think he’s cooked up something more substantial than a chewy Vatican potboiler here—a meditation on faith in the modern era, or some other middlebrow (papal) bull. Who knows and who cares? The crowd I saw it with thought Berger’s flamboyant pope opera was funny as hell (pardon the expression, Father) and they were right. Watching old guys from around the world in funny clothes politic, gossip, and backstab is just solid entertainment. Cinematographer Stéphane Fontaine milks everything he can from the ornate setting and bright costumery, and this cast knows how to project an ominous seriousness that’s forever camp adjacent. We’re talking Ralph Fiennes working his timeworn visage of existential indigestion, John Lithgow looking more like Donald Rumsfield than ever, Sergio Castellitto as a gregarious bear who wants to repeal Vatican II, Isabella Rossellini as a mysterious nun, and, for the ladies, a little Stanley Tucci. You’ll guess most of the twists, groan at some, and even get blindsided by a few. Still, without giving too much away, it’s hard not to notice that none of the scandals here are as horrific as those the Catholic Church has covered up in real life. B+
Dune: Part 2 (read the full review here)
The first part of Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation was a well-crafted slog, occasionally spectacular but often merely studently, as the director seemed intent to prove that he deserved the assignment. But with all the power players set in place, Part Two does an awful lot right. Villeneuve distills the essence of the novel’s currents of deception and misdirection into a legible screenplay while generating some truly uncanny moments. And as Paul Atreides, Timothée Chalamet shows us a man who makes a pragmatic decision to exploit the dogmatism of his followers because he believes that every other choice will cause more death and destruction, or who at least rationalizes his motives that way. With IP-recycling now the culture industry’s standard cannibalistic practice, Villeneuve, like Paul, imagines himself the good guy in this scenario, respectful of the traditions placed in his care rather than merely exploitative. But also like Paul there are forces at play beyond his control. So what happens when Villeneuve’s hero threatens to become a butcher? Stay tuned for Part 3. B+
Emilia Pérez
[I saw this movie on Election Night 2024, in a fairly distracted state of mind, and wrote this review the next day. I suspect I was kinder to this movie than it deserves, but I'm not rewatching to be sure.] Jacques Audiard’s musical crime melodrama about a trans Mexican gangster who remakes herself as a social activist is indeed “a big swing,” as apologists for unrealized ambition like to say. As the lawyer who helps make this transformation happen, Zoe Saldaña not only does she get to appear in her natural human skin color for once, but she can really move—the film’s one real showstopper owes her ability to bring Paul Guilhaume’s otherwise lackluster choreography to life. And as Emilia herself, Karla Sofía Gascón puts her charisma and her telenovela pedigree to good use. (As Emilia’s wife-turned-foe, Selena Gomez is fine.) But this level of stylized overstatement requires a surety of command that Audiard lacks here, not to mention better musical numbers. The French songwriter Camille supplies little more than hookless recitatives, an excuse for characters to dump their inner thoughts at unnecessary length to the tune of forgettable melodies. Call me old-fashioned, but I think you should be able to remember a musical’s songs after you’ve heard them. B-
Flow
Every house cat stalks through its domain like some fierce jungle predator indifferent to any challenge. Latvian animator Gints Zilbalodis calls that supposedly independent beast’s bluff, tossing a kitty into a flood and saying “How tough are you now, huh puss?” Flow is in part a unique hangout movie, a kind a postdiluvian animal Real World where a prickly black cat is forced to coexist on a boat with a wounded secretarybird, an acquisitive lemur, a stolid capybara, and an all too friendly Lab. None of the critters speak—aside from knowing how to work a rudder, they generally behave as animals would. And while the computer animation isn’t exactly beautiful, and can’t avoid an occasional cutscene quality, we pass through computer-generated environments with an unmatched three-dimensional ease that's its own reward. Though we never learn what happened to the humans—Flow is blessedly free of any backstory—there’s also an element of wish fulfillment here. If humans ever do finally off themselves en masse, it suggests, at least the animals we love will find ways to survive. If they learn to work together better than humans did, that is. A-
I’m Still Here
There’s a lot to admire about Walter Salles’s newest film, which documents the struggle of Eunice Paiva (Fernanda Torres) to learn the truth about what happened to her dissident husband Ruben (Selton Mello) after his abduction by the Brazilian military dictatorship. Mostly there’s Torres’s performance, which projects an astonishing dignity and perseverance. (As a nice touch, Fernanda Montenegro, the jaded teacher from Salles’s 1998 breakthrough Central Station, plays the older Eunice.) Salles’s timing couldn’t be better: Surely the film’s Oscar nominations (Best Picture and Best Actress for Torres) owe something to the mood of “it can happen here?” now belated descending upon the privileged in the U.S. But as a director Salles lacks the historical sweep required to tell a multi-decade story, the Paivas’ family life feels idealized both before and after the arrest, and we rarely quite get inside Eunice’s mind and heart. The film exists for a worthy goal, bearing witness to the fact that repressive regimes someday come to an end—sometimes even with a single lifetime. But it’s more testimonial than art. B
Legends of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants
The Monkey
I’ve got a conundrum: To accurately convey just how irritating this movie is, I’d have to spend more time thinking about it than is good for my mental health. So I’ll just punt and say if the ridiculously overpraised Longlegs suggested that Oswald Perkins was a dumb but talented guy, this Stephen King adaptation reminds me that a talent with no idea how to use it is just a fancy hack. The story is simple enough: Twin brothers inherit a cursed toy monkey from their dad and every time they turn its key someone dies in a ridiculous manner. But that’s ridiculous, not ingenious—if the Final Destinations understood their place in the world and just went about their business; Perkins can’t stop reminding you he’s slumming here. I haven’t been so impatient for a movie to end since Argylle, and this one was only 90 minutes long. With its swearing pre-teens, occasionally decent splatter, and elbow in the ribs humor, this may the perfect sleepover movie for none-too-bright 12–year-olds. Thirteen-year-olds might find it a little corny though. C
Nickel Boys
You probably know the deal: director RaMell Ross’s debut feature is shot almost entirely from the point of view of two Black teens sentenced to a brutal Florida reform school. The opening moments are so perfect and impressionistic you think, well, this could be a fine short film, but there’s no way Ross can keep that level of formal command up for over two hours. And there are occasional stumbles, but the technique is no gimmick, or maybe it’s just a gimmick that deepens the content. Being essentially trapped in a character’s body with them creates a distancing effect. We feel as alienated from the strange surroundings as the somewhat naive innocent Elwood (Ethan Herisse) does; we keep a keen eye open as the more savvy Turner (Brandon Wilson) has learned to do. Using the techniques of screen realism to tell this story is what would have felt like a gimmick—just a gimmick we’ve learned to accept as natural. A
No Other Land
Maybe the Oscars can be a force for good? Certainly a Best Documentary nomination has helped this acclaimed look at the Israeli displacement of Palestinians on the West Bank belatedly access U.S. theaters, after major distributors ignored it for more than a year. But the struggle for distribution shouldn’t overshadow the film itself, which is much more than just a competent document of brutality. No Other Land is the product of four directors (Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor), two Israeli and two Palestinian; the various sources of footage from cameras and phones are brilliantly edited, and the strained friendship between two of the filmmakers—the Palestinian Adra and the Israeli Abraham—is central to the story it tells of the limits of empathy and humanitarian universalism. There are plenty of horrors to catalogue here, and even if months of violent clips from Gaza have desensitized you, watching a settler casually gun down a displaced Palestinian will still make you gasp. Yet it's the everyday cruelty that's most unsettling, the sight of an army pouring concrete into a well and bulldozing the homes of families forced to relocate to caves. Humans really are capable of doing anything to one another, and in cold blood. A
Paddington in Peru
The third Paddington installment has all the hallmarks of a Part Three: a new setting, a cast replacement (Emily Mortimer gamely standing in for the much-missed Sally Hawkins), developing characters whose charm has always been that they don’t change, a resolution that could end the story but, if everything works out at the box office, probably won’t. Still, it’s fun to watch Antonio Banderas ham it up as a tour boat captain who is not what he seems, haunted by gold-hungry ancestors (also Banderas). Likewise for Olivia Coleman as a grinning, singing nun who is not what she etc., running a home for retired bears. Paddington, bless him, remains exactly what he seems, causing good-natured mayhem whether he’s failing to operate a photo booth correctly, racing on llamas, or steering a ship. But this is merely cute where Paddington 2 was irresistible. B+
The Substance (read the full review here)
Without our shared cultural knowledge of Demi Moore’s life and career, The Substance, Coralie Fargeat’s absurdist experiment in gory meta-hagsploitation, is a fairly limp if expressively graphic satire of impossible female body standards. Moore’s presence, and her performance, give the film its moments of depth—moments Fargeat doesn’t always seem particularly interested in. Moore is an aging, discarded star who injects herself with a black-market serum that looks like radioactive pee and mitoses into the “ideal version of herself,” a perky-butted and gleam-smiled Margaret Qualley who calls herself Sue. Each woman gets to remain conscious for exactly a week apiece, spending each alternate week as a nude, comatose lump ingesting bagged nutrients. And as Elisabeth begins to sulk through her allotment of days and Sue wants more time to shine, rules are inevitably bent, with increasingly disastrous results. The subtlety-free finale, which fire-hoses blood at the patriarchy and anyone else in proximity, will either have you pumping your fist at its audacity or rolling your eyes at what a cop out it is. For better or for worse, what Fargeat is “trying to say” and her grisly overindulgence are inseparable. B-
2025 Oscar Nominated Short Films - Animation
It’s that time of year.
2025 Oscar Nominated Short Films – Documentary
And more shorts.
2025 Oscar Nominated Short Films - Live Action
And yet more shorts.
Vermiglio
Who wouldn’t be suspicious of a quiet period piece set in a picturesque, isolated Alpine village saturated with natural light? But as we drift through a year in the life of a rural Italian family dominated by its patriarch, a stern provincial schoolmaster, director Maura Delpero probes the cruelty beneath the placid, pastoral surface. One daughter falls for a WWII deserter hiding out in the village, while another is obsessed with self-mortification and in love with the local wild girl. The children all vie for papa’s affection so they might escape Vermiglio for boarding school, except a son who rebels by becoming a field hand. And babies just keep being born and occasionally dying. The storytelling isn’t just episodic but anecdotal; Delpero typically cuts away before a scene is resolved, with much of the action happening off screen, as befits a story of shame, thwarted desire, and withheld affection. But there are moments of joy—the children whispering together at night in their shared beds, a shared elicit cigarette in a barn—suggesting that not all vitality has been stamped out. And it’s all very pretty to look at, of course. Not major, but rewarding. B+
Wicked (read the full review here)
Thinkpieces are surely in the works about how Wicked, the story of a good woman who is cast as an enemy of the people by authoritarians using fiendishly disseminated lies, is a perfect Trump era fable (just as it was a perfect Bush era fable two decades ago). But maybe the best topical lesson that Wicked offers is that villains are often more entertaining than heroes. If anything, Cynthia Erivo has too much screen presence for her already underwritten part, and her almost-adult dignity undermines her character arc. Her Elphaba (a.k.a. the Wicked Witch of the West) is no ingénue misled by foolish dreams, and seems incapable of humiliation. Meanwhile, Glinda is a dream of a role that Ariana Grande floats through with perfect timing, flaunting her shallow vanity, scene-stealing blonde hair tosses, and comically sudden upshoots into her showy soprano. And while I’ll take songwriter Stephen Schwartz’s generically inspirational pop over the wan schlock of the dreaded Pasek and Paul, I have seen better movie musicals set in Oz. B
