What the film has to say about the exploitative nature of sequels is less interesting than how it positions its male lead.
This year could be different. As the awards race heats up and smaller accolades roll in, there are multiple queer film contenders in almost every big category.
In 1981, Warren Beatty directed Reds, a retelling of John Reed’s classic firsthand account of the Russian Revolution. The film still stands up today as one of the greatest and most faithful depictions of revolutionary politics.
First Wave wants us to feel a sliver of the same fury and impotence and eventually, occasionally, mercifully, even the same catharsis that frontline workers were confronted with every day when this nightmare was at its worst.
Cool, elegant, and devastating, a film as tightly woven and plaintive as the source novel itself. It’s an artifact of its time, both 1929 and in 2021, when the questions around identity have morphed and shifted but are still relevant as ever.
“The Harder They Fall”, the dynamic black western, corrects the historical record. Manifest Destiny may have been a uniquely Anglo-Saxon concept, but white people weren’t alone in the westward expansion that followed the Civil War.
Joel Coen’s Shakespeare adaptation is a black-and-white affair starring Denzel Washington as Macbeth and Frances McDormand as Lady Macbeth. And it is a sight to behold.
The beautiful souls that created free jazz — including Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Don Cherry and Carla Bley — light up this new documentary from Tom Surgal.
Central to "Cousins" is the struggle of the Maoris to retain ownership of their age-old lands in the face of settler colonialism dating back to the British invasion of Aotearoa/New Zealand by 1840.
Cinephiles and streaming fans can both claim victory. But as we better understand the new screen culture taking shape, it looks like we may all lose in the long run.
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