Under The Shadow (2016)

Another spooky movie for Halloween! Directed by Babak Anvari and based upon his childhood memories of the Tehran bombings, Under The Shadow (2016) works as a solid drama that escalates into spookiness. It’s set during the Iraq-Iran conflict of the 1980s, focusing on a family living in Tehran during regular bombings, with details such as […]

If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)

If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) is director Barry Jenkins’ follow up to the award-winning Moonlight, an adaptation of the James Baldwin novel. Beautiful cinematography by James Laxton and lush score by Nicholas Britell. Lovely performances from KiKi Layne, Stephan James, Regina King and Brian Tyree Henry. All of it working together to create a […]

Shoplifters (2018)

Shoplifters (2018; Manbiki Kazoku) is the first that I’ve seen of writer-director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s many critically-acclaimed films. It’s about a struggling family that make ends meet by shoplifting and who take in a young girl from an abusive home. Observational, funny and warm, there were moments that just had me tearing up instantly. At first, […]

Little Sister (2016)

Writer-director Zach Clark’s (White Reindeer, Vacation, Modern Love Is Automatic) film Little Sister (2016) is available to stream on Netflix. Small, stylish, empathetic and intriguing, it’s about an ex-goth turned nun (Addison Timlin) returning to her family in North Carolina after her brother (Keith Poulson) returns from the war a scarred shut-in. The sequence where […]

High Flying Bird (2019)

Director Steven Soderbergh’s film for Netflix, High Flying Bird (2019), is a collaboration between Soderbergh, playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney (writer of Moonlight) and actor Andre Holland (also of Moonlight and The Knick) who plays an agent trying to make some moves during an NBA lockout where the salaries of young black players are drying up […]