Too Soon: Comedy After 9/11 makes its arrival on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the tragic attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. This documentary is in the same vein as that of The Last Laugh. There’s a mixture of how can comedians use humor when talking about 9/11 and how comedians helped us heal as a country following the tragic attacks. There is footage of the World Trade Centers falling down…
"Too Soon: Comedy After 9/11"Category: Movie Reviews
Three Minutes – A Lengthening draws on 16mm color film shot in 1938 by David Kurtz before Nazis invaded Nasielsk’s Jewish community in Poland. The short documentary (69 minutes) is based on Three Minutes in Poland: Discovering a Lost World in a 1938 Family Film by Glenn Kurtz. Throw in the remastering and all the fun that comes along but the footage is truly impressive. We see it so many times throughout the film to…
"Three Minutes – A Lengthening – Venice/Telluride 2021"
Documentary filmmakers Julie Cohen and Betsy West are back at it again with the story of unlikely television star Julia Child in Julia. Julia Child was a legend but she reached this point late in her life. She is proof that if you don’t find fame in your 20s or 30s, you could possibly find it in your 50s. This is exactly what she did when she called into a Boston public television statement about…
"Julia – Telluride 2021"
One young woman gets in a second chance in the new comedy, Afterlife of the Party, launching on Netflix ahead of Labor Day weekend. After a night of partying and blowing off her best friend, Cassie (Victoria Justice) tragically dies during her 25th birthday week of all weeks. Being hungover isn’t the best way to go out and if there were video of her death, Cassie certainly would not want it to go viral. It’s…
"Afterlife of the Party Offers A Second Chance"
Writer-director Kay Cannon makes movie magic once again with one of the most original takes on Cinderella to hit the big or small screen. Cannon’s take is one that truly subverts everything we know about the fairy tale. Not even Walt Disney would have been able to come up with a take such as this. What Cannon does here is bold and unique. Granted, there wasn’t much of a push for diversity on screen when…
"Cinderella: Kay Cannon Makes Movie Magic Again"
He’s All That takes advantage of social media in this gender-swapped present-day remake of the 1999 high school comedy, She’s All That. There’s a few beats here and there that repeat themselves in the remake. You could not make the remake without the dance-off though. Of course, the film works with the present day’s typical social media usage. Most of which is spent going live on Instagram and posting photos for what feels like every…
"He’s All That: A Gender-Swapped She’s All That"
What happens on vacation doesn’t necessarily stay on vacation as we see in the raunchy Hulu Original comedy, Vacation Friends. Marcus (Lil Rel Howery) and Emily (Yvonne Orji) are a run-of-the-mill couple vacationing in Mexico. Marcus, who owns a construction firm, is planning to propose. Almost as soon as they arrive, they meet their polar opposites in Ron (John Cena) and Kyla (Meredith Hagner). These two couples couldn’t be more different if they tried. Ron…
"Vacation Friends: What Happens On Vacation, Well…"
Under the Volcano is a very intimate documentary that tells the story of Sir George Martin’s AIR Studios Montserrat and the surroundings. If you’re fan of The Beatles, you know the name Sir George Martin. He’s the man who produced the four lads from Liverpool. What you might not know is that he later started up a recording studio on Montserrat. It just so happens that said studio was build under the shadow of a…
"Under the Volcano: The AIR Studios Montserrat Story"
Together, the new Stephen Daldry film starring James McAvoy and Sharon Horgan, is the latest pandemic comedy to hit the market. Perhaps the biggest thing about the very minimal cast is that Together feels much like a theatrical two-hander with its staging and monologues. For the record, I felt this way before reading the production notes. According to the film’s production notes: “Kelly originally conceived of Together as a stage play. The rapid-fire dialogue and…
"Together Is More Theatrical, Less Cinematic"
Love in the Afternoon, starring Gary Cooper and Audrey Hepburn, is Billy Wilder’s best attempt at making a film in the spirit of his late mentor, Ernst Lubitsch. Ariane Chavasse (Audrey Hepburn) is a cello student and overhears a conversation between her private detective father, Claude Chavasse (Maurice Chevalier), and a client, Monsieur X (John McGiver). Claude’s specialty is going after the spouses who are unfaithful. Anyway, Monsieur X insists that he will kill American…
"Love in the Afternoon: Billy Wilder’s Lubitsch Film"