Reviews

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Episode 508 – Empire of Light / The Whale / Babylon

‘Tis the season.  Join us this week for a round of the late 2022 releases:

  • Empire of Light
  • The Whale
  • Babylon

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Episode Time Stamps:

00:04:02: Streaming Picks
00:13:00: Empire Of Light
00:29:36: The Whale
00:42:34: Babylon

 

Yazdi’s Best of 2019: the First Half

 

Hello film lovers. Yazdi here.

 

The first six months sometimes felt like the world was on fire. If not underwater. Literally. With record high temperatures world wide and biblical floods elsewhere. Mass shootings on a daily basis and a political regression to the early fifties. In these spiraling times, I found the best salve in the comfort of movie theaters, when stepping in, no matter how briefly, into the lives of others on screen was distraction enough. So now is as good a time as any to list the better films that got released in the first half of 2019.

 

  1. BOOKSMART (VOD: iTunes/Amazon)

Objectively smart, wickedly funny, and ultimately well meaning, this film will hold up as a classic of the American teen film genre.  Not since FRANCES HA have we seen a film take on, as its principal focus, the careful examination of the relationship between two female friends, an oft neglected topic. And start preparing to hear the name of Olivia Wilde at end-of-year Best Director discussions.

 

  1. GLORIA BELL  (VOD: iTunes/Amazon)

No film this year brought be greater delight at the simple joy of being alive as GLORIA BELL. Remaking his own celebrated 2013 Chilean film GLORIA, starring the indomitable Paulina Garcia, director Sebastian Lelio, fresh off his Best Foreign Film Oscar win for A FANTASTIC WOMAN, teams with Julianne Moore for his English language debut in GLORIA BELL. This film chooses to watch, without judgment, a woman of a certain age post-divorce try to find her place in the world again. People always complain that the stalwarts like Streep and Moore and Close always grab all the attention, not leaving room for new actor recognition, but to watch Julianne Moore here, in a resplendent, unaffected, and open performance is to realize why the good actors deserve our continued respect.

 

  1. US (VOD: iTunes/Amazon)

Jordan Peele’s sophomore feature lacks the elegantly clean plotting that made his first film, GET OUT, a breakout hit. This second film from Peele is messier and bites off more than it can chew. But that doesn’t make it a lesser film, just a more ambitious one. Most of the film plays, and effectively so, as a thriller, even as a genre home invasion film. But in its last thirty minutes it digs deeper at what Peele had in mind with the film all along. A blistering attack on privilege, the price we pay for repressing our identity, and our cultural acceptance of elitism, US has one of its characters say in so many words that the film title refers to an unsteady “United States” and not the deceptive warmth of “us”. Is it that each one of us has an other hidden self, the truer person that we keep firmly subterranean. And what if all our other hidden selves were to get together. That we are even discussing these ideas is a testament to the vision of Jordan Peele. When can we see your next film, Mr Peele?

 

  1. EVERYBODY KNOWS (streaming on Netflix)

A woman returns with her kids to her hometown in Spain for her sister’s wedding and her teenaged daughter goes missing on the night of the celebrations. This plays like a thriller, but only as a device to comment on the unknowable secrets that lurk within families. And the long-held resentments and past grudges that erupt when something bad happens. This is a melodrama in the best sense of the word, a fully satisfying moral dissection of family couched within a whodunit.  This is a Spanish language feature made by an Iranian director, set in Spain and features some of the best acting talent from Latin cinema. All one needs to say is that it stars Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem and Ricardo Darin. What more do you want from your cinema, especially coming from two-time winner of Best Foreign Film director Asghar Farhadi.  And as terrific as Cruz and Bardem (playing Cruz’s past lover) are in this film, it is Barbara Lennie who plays Bardem’s wife who should be included any year-end discussion of the best supporting performers in cinema. I wonder if there is a better film screening on Netflix right now.

 

  1. MIDSOMMAR (back in theaters for the Director’s cut with 30 additional minutes)

This film technically didn’t open until July 3rd, but I saw it at a screening earlier in June, so I am including it on this list. How could I not. This is not a perfect film, and a few times comes dangerously close to buckling under its own heft. And I wanted the ending to hold more wonders, be more original (although the conclusion has a delighting sourness to it). But the film is constructed with so much wonder otherwise, and is so masterfully crafted, that I readily surrendered to where it took me. The film is about a group of friends who visit the rural home of their Swedish friend to attend the once-in-decades Midsommar festival, and soon start to realize that things there may not be as idyllic as they seem. The film circles around so many issues, (including a nicely haunting prologue featuring rising star Florence Hugh having to deal with sudden tragedy), that it is often difficult to identify the film’s primary thesis. But therein lies its strength because the road to its conclusion is so gleefully unpredictable.

 

  1. ROCKETMAN (VOD: Amazon/ITunes)

Now here is how to make a biopic.  Of a musical genius, even while being constrained by the jerky, necessarily episodic nature of the storytelling. In its execution and in its joyful, surreal, and altogether delightful visual splendor of the musical pieces, the film goes to heights that completely eluded the overcelebrated BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY from last year. Unlike that film, ROCKETMAN has its lead sing his own songs (and he is mighty adept at it), the film covers a relatively short period of time (childhood through the early eighties) in the life of its protagonist, and most critically handles them with integrity.

 

  1. PHOTOGRAPH (streaming on Amazon Prime)

As small as this film is, it gives so much. The director of the celebrated film THE LUNCHBOX, has his next film that is set in India deal with the unlikely connection between two strangers who need each other more than each realizes. Wise, gentle and never kneeling to the unnecessary turnings of a plot, PHOTOGRAPH best of all is a movie about movies, and finds a way to pay wistful homage to a past Bollywood that will never be again. The film is also a marvel of acting, as the unimprovable Nawazuddin Siddiqui creates another indelible character of an everyman in India. Seek out this film, particularly since it is streaming on Amazon Prime now.

 

  1. JOHN WICK 3 (VOD: iTunes/Amazon)

The John Wick films have become an unexpected paean to superlative action in cinema. And JOHN WICK 3 is no exception; the film is essentially a concatenation of hard-to-believe, how-did-they-do-that set pieces that frequently bring jaw to floor. How each successive film in the series amps the ingenuity of the action is something to marvel at, even as the scripts widen the mythology of the world created by the first film. What is not something to marvel at is how Chad Stahelski, the man behind these films, feels the need to also unfortunately ramp up the violence in these films; look, I am fine with violence in cinema and it doesn’t usually bother me. But as many others have mentioned, if JOHN WICK 3 didn’t get an NC-17 rating for extreme violence, then no film ever will. Why this need to push the limits of the eye-gouging and bone-crunching; Stahelski should have confidence in his craft and understand that not everyone savors violence as entertainment.

 

  1. GULLY BOY (streaming on Netflix)

A young man from the Mumbai slums dreams of becoming a rap artist. This was film I should have had no interest in, and yet it totally captivated me, proving again Roger Ebert’s assertion that it’s not what the film is about, but rather how it is about what it is about. Ranveer Singh just coming off his gloriously deranged role in PADMAVAT, plays the title character with a mixture of resigned despair and cautiously germinating optimism. And Alia Bhat playing his girlfriend who will take no prisoners, very nearly steals the film. This is another winner from writer-director Zoya Akhtar.

 

  1. THE DEAD DON’T DIE (VOD: iTunes/Amazon)

I am not routinely a fan of horror, but Jim Jarmusch’s droll, dry take on the zombie genre made me beam through the running time of THE DEAD DON’T DIE. Many found the film inconsequential, but I resonated fully with the deadpan humor, and the film’s frequent forays into self-aware breaking of the third wall. Bill Murray has reached a mythical stature in cinema, but to see his line readings in this film is to realize why he earns that place. And with a ridiculously privileged cast that includes Adam Driver, Tilda Swinton, Chloe Sevigny and Alison Janney, this film is a breezy hoot.

 

Episode 422 – Tribeca Film Festival 2019 (Day 1) – #TFF2019 #Tribeca2019

Welcome to our inagural Podcast from the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival with coverage of the movies:

– Halston (03:34)


– Charlie Says (10:19)


– Luce (16:31)


– Standing Up, Falling Down (22:36)


– At The Heart of Gold (28:52)


– The Gasoline Thieves (39:01)


– Burning Cane (44:18)


– Come to Daddy (49:57)


– A Regular Woman (53:53)


– After Parkland (59:25)

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Full Listing of 2018 Tribeca Film Festival Coverage | #tribeca2018

Every April, the three Moviewallas arrive into New York City with gleaming eyes and smiles that won’t rub off our faces. We arrive to soak our needing bones in the offerings of the Tribeca Film Festival, wanting for good cinema since the end of the awards season earlier in the year.

This year our schedules dictated that we caught the back end of the film festival; we usually attend the festival in the early part. Being based in San Diego, and juggling other jobs, we can make it to New York for about a week every year, even though our hearts ache for more time at the festival. After having watched four, five, six films a day, our bodies start to exhaust, our droopy eyes start to crave for the littlest sleep, and we may start to lose a dash of the spring in our steps. But the greedy mind and the selfish heart wants for more films, but we have to turn around and leave.

Coming into the latter half of the festival, we worried a little this year that we might not be able to catch as many films as in the past. We feared that the best films will have already had their press screenings earlier in the festival. Turns out our worries were in vain; amongst the three of us, we watched 25 films at the festival. Upon returning back to San Diego, we rested our press badges with pride at our recording studio; it was another fulfilling year at Tribeca.

So as in every year, herewith is a full listing of all 29 films we covered at #tribeca2018. All of them were discussed during our four live from New York podcasts. And as always, before the alphabetical listing of all of the films we covered, here are the top festival favourites from each of the three Moviewallas.

Joe’s Top Films from the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival 

  1. OBEY
  2. THE ELEPHANT AND THE BUTTERFLY
Joe’s top picks from #Tribeca2018

Rashmi’s Top Films from the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival

  1. STUDIO 54
  2. DEAD WOMEN WALKING
Rashmi’s top picks from #Tribeca2018

Yazdi’s Top Films from the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival

  1. DEAD WOMEN WALKING
  2. DIANE
  3. THE ELEPHANT AND THE BUTTERFLY
Yazdi’s top picks from #Tribeca2018

And here is a full alphabetical listing of the films we covered at #tribeca2018 with links to the Tribeca film descriptions as well as to the specific podcast where each film was discussed:

 

  1. BOBBY KENNEDY FOR PRESIDENT, Day 1 podcast at 2:45 minutes
  2. DEAD WOMEN WALKING, Day 4 podcast at 16:20 minutes, Rashmi and Yazdi’s Top Tribeca pick
  3. DIANE, Day 4 podcast at 45:30 minutes, Yazdi’s Top Tribeca pick
  4. EGG, Day 2 podcast at 29:05 minutes
  5. ENHANCED, Day 2 podcast at 23:15 minutes
  6. IN A RELATIONSHIP, Day 2 podcast at 4:05 minutes
  7. IT’S A HARD TRUTH AIN’T IT, Day 1 podcast at 33:45 minutes
  8. MAPPLETHORPE, Day 4 podcast at 30:55 minutes
  9. MARY SHELLEY, Day 3 podcast at 42:35 minutes
  10. NIGERIAN PRINCE, Day 2 podcast at 40:40 minutes
  11. OBEY, Day 4 podcast at 36:15 minutes, Joe’s Top Tribeca Pick
  12. SATAN & ADAM, Day 3 podcast at 25:35 minutes
  13. SAY HER NAME: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF SANDRA BLAND, Day 1 podcast at 17:20 minutes
  14. STUDIO 54, Day 3 podcast at 11:15 minutes, Rashmi’s Top Tribeca Pick
  15. THE AMERICAN MEME, Day 3 podcast at 31:45 minutes
  16. THE BLEEDING EDGE, Day 2 podcast at 11:50 minutes
  17. THE DARK, Day 4 podcast at 25:15 minutes
  18. THE ELEPHANT AND THE BUTTERFLY, Day 3 podcast at 17:40 minutes, Joe and Yazdi’s Top Tribeca Pick
  19. THE FEELING OF BEING WATCHED, Day 3 podcast at 2:10 minutes
  20. THE FOURTH ESTATE, Day 4 podcast at 5:30 minutes
  21. THE GREAT PRETENDER, Day 1 podcast at 13:45 minutes
  22. THE PARTY’S JUST BEGINNING, Day 1 podcast at 28:20 minutes
  23. TINY SHOULDERS: RETHINKING BARBIE, Day 1 podcast at 8:00 minutes
  24. TO DUST, Day 1 podcast at 23:15 minutes
  25. UNTOGETHER, Day 2 podcast at 51:15 minutes

 

Until the year next, goodbye Tribeca!

 

 

Full Listing of 2017 Tribeca Film Festival Coverage | #tribeca2017




So there we were, in New York City again, giddy and electric with excitement at the start of another Tribeca Film Festival. #tribeca2017 beckoned. Our annual pilgrimage was upon us.

Joe’s Top Three Picks – 2017 Tribeca Film Festival

After having set up base at the Battery Park area for the past several years, this year we made home in a tony Chelsea hotel. And a new ritual was set for the film festival. Get up early, get ready and dressed, grab caffeine and sunrise munchies at one of the neighbourhood establishments and head to the Chelsea Bowties cinemas (in the midst of transition to Cinepolis properties) for the 9 AM first press screening. After making agonizing decisions during the rest of the morning regarding which screenings to catch of the several that were concurrently showing, we typically made our way through four films. Then a bite to eat. Or an early dinner at a strongly recommended restaurant (Paowalla, how you filled us up!). Or a meet up with friends. Then a sundown film screening. After which we returned back sated with all manner of cinematic memories bouncing in our heads. And recorded a podcast in which we discussed all the films we had watched cumulatively amongst the three of us. And Joe, the good man, edited and published the podcast the same night.

After five days of this routine, we got bleary-eyed, as the accumulation of ever more films danced around in our brains. But it was the best kind of exhaustion for us, the kind that comes from watching too many films. As if there is such a thing as “too many movies”.

Rashmi’s Top Three Picks – 2017 Tribeca Film Festival

Before we knew it, it was time to head back to the West Coast. With another deposit to our Tribeca Film Festival memory bank. And ready and eager to back for #tribeca2018. And this year, we had seen 34 films amongst the three of us! It is the most films we have covered at Tribeca to date, and hope to best that tally next year.

So herewith is a full listing of all 34 films we covered at #tribeca2017. These films were all discussed on our five ‘live from New York’ podcasts devoted to the festival. But before the full alphabetical listing of the films we covered, here are the top festival favourites from each of us:

 

Joe’s Top Three Films at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival

ALPHAGO
A RIVER BELOW
ROCK’N ROLL

 

Rashmi’s Top Three Films at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival

GET ME ROGER STONE
ROCK’N ROLL
KING OF PEKING

 

Yazdi’s Top Three Films from the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival

PERMISSION
PILGRIMAGE
SWEET VIRGINIA

 

And here is a full alphabetical listing of the films we watched at #Tribeca2017 with links to the Tribeca film descriptions as well as to the specific podcast where each film was discussed:

 

  1. A RIVER BELOW, at 24:50 min, Day 3 podcast – Joe’s Top Three Tribeca Pick
  2. ABUNDANT ACREAGE AVAILABLE, at 11:00 min, Day 1 podcast
  3. ACORN AND THE FIRESTORM, at 18:57 min, Day 4 podcast
  4. ALPHAGO, at 29:21 min, Day 2 podcast – Joe’s Top Three Tribeca Pick
  5. BOMBSHELL: THE HEDY LAMARR STORY , at 29:09 min, Day 4 podcast
  6. COPWATCH, at 12:14 min, Day 4 podcast
  7. FLAMES, at 29:44 min, Day 1 podcast
  8. FLOWER, at 44:01 min, Day 1 podcast
  9. FRANK SERPICO, at 3:42 min, Day 4 podcast
  10. GENIUS (television pilot), at 15:58 min, Day 1 podcast
  11. GET ME ROGER STONE, at 7:45 min, Day 4 podcast– Rashmi’s Top Three Tribeca  Pick
  12. HOLY AIR, at 20:18 min, Day 1 podcast
  13. HOUSE OF Z, at 30:54  min, Day 3 podcast
  14. KEEP THE CHANGE, at 36:33 min, Day 1 podcast
  15. KING OF PEKING, at 25:42 min, Day 1 podcast – Rashmi’s Top Three Tribeca Pick 
  16. LITERALLY, RIGHT BEFORE AARON, at 20:14 min, Day 3 podcast
  17. MY FRIEND DAHMER, at 8:10 min, Day 2 podcast
  18. ONE PERCENT MORE HUMID, at 12:13 min, Day 2 podcast
  19. PERMISSION, at 4:43 min, Day 3 podcast – Yazdi’s Top Three Tribeca Pick
  20. ROCK’N ROLL, at  44:51 min, Day 3 podcastJoe’s Top Three Tribeca Pick
  21. PILGRIMAGE, at 38:53 min, Day 3 podcast – Yazdi’s Top Three Tribeca Pick
  22. SHADOWMAN, at 23:57 min, Day 2 podcast
  23. SON OF SOFIA, at 46:25 min, Day 2 podcast
  24. SWEET VIRGINIA, at 17:31 min, Day 2 podcast – Yazdi’s Top Three Tribeca Pick
  25. THE BOY DOWNSTAIRS, at 24:24 min, Day 4 podcast
  26. THE CLAPPER, at 1:50 min, Day 4 podcast
  27. THE ENDLESS, at 41:09 min, Day 2 podcast
  28. THE HANDMAID’S TALE (television pilot), at 36:15 min, Day 2 podcast
  29. THE LAST ANIMALS, at 15:10 min, Day 3 podcast
  30. THE LOVERS, at 34:57  min, Day 3 podcast
  31. THIRST STREET, at 2:07 min, Day 2 podcast
  32. THUMPER, at 6:02 min, Day 1 podcast
  33. SAMBA, at 2:54 min, Day 1 podcast
  34. TILT, at 13:05 min, Day 3 podcast

 

Yazdi’s Top Three Picks – 2017 Tribeca Film Festival

 

Until next year, goodbye Tribeca!

Full listing of 2016 Tribeca Film Festival Coverage

 

Day 1, Tribeca 2016
Day One, 2016 Tribeca Film Festival

What joy it was to watch film after film at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival #Tribeca 2016. Sometimes five, six films in a day. We were happy as pigs in mud. Rolling around in the excellently curated selections at the festival. Our third consecutive year covering Tribeca proved a dizzying blast as between the three of us, we saw 27 films in four days at the festival. These films were all discussed on our five ‘live from New York’ podcasts devoted to the festival.

Day 2 Tribeca 2016
Day Two, 2016 Tribeca Film Festival
Day 3 Tribeca 2016
Day 3, 2016 Tribeca Film Festival 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a full alphabetical listing of the films we watched at #Tribeca2016, with links to the podcast where each film was discussed:

  1. AFTER SPRING, at 31:06 min, Day 2 podcast
  2. AWOL, at 12:38 min, Day 3 podcast
  3. BAD RAP, at 10:10 min, Day 5 podcast
  4. THE BANKSY JOB, at 2:03 min, Day 5 podcast
  5. DETOUR, at 5:45 min, Day 4 podcast
  6. THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA, at 1:45 min, Day 2 podcast
  7. DO NOT RESIST, at 7:27 min, Day 2 podcast
  8. DON’T LOOK DOWN, at 25:20 min, Day 2 podcast
  9. ENLIGHTEN US: THE RISE AND FALL OF JAMES ARTHUR RAY, at 28:56 min, Day 5 podcast
  10. THE FAMILY FANG, at 14:40 min, Day 1 podcast
  11. THE FIRST MONDAY IN MAY at 4:30 min, Day 1 podcast
  12. HERE ALONE, at 30:17 min, Day 3 podcast
  13. HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM, at 11:14 min, Day 4 podcast
  14. HUNT FOR THE WILDERPEOPLE, at 27:59 min, Day 1 podcast
  15. I’LL SLEEP WHEN I’M DEAD, at 24:00 min, Day 3 podcast
  16. JEREMIAH TOWER: THE LAST MAGNIFICENT, at 24:54 min, Day 5 podcast
  17. KEEP QUIET, at 12:34 min, Day 2 podcast
  18. LITTLE BOXES, at 33:57 min, Day 3 podcast
  19. LIVE CARGO, at 9:16 min, Day 3 podcast
  20. THE LONER, at 17:20 min, Day 5 podcast
  21. THE MEDDLER, at 4:48 min, Day 1 podcast
  22. MOTHER (EMA), at 21:58 min, Day 1 podcast
  23. PARENTS (FORAELDRE), at 19:12 min, Day 3 podcast
  24. PISTOL SHRIMPS, at 18:45 min, Day 2 podcast
  25. SHADOW WORLD, at 15:24 min, Day 4 podcast
  26. WOMEN WHO KILL, at 2:00 min, Day 3 podcast
  27. YOUTH IN OREGON, at 1:20 min, Day 4 podcast
Day Four Tribeca 2016
Day Four, 2016 Tribeca Film Festival finds
Day 5 Tribeca 2016
Day Five, 2016 Tribeca Film Festival finds

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Until next year, goodbye Tribeca.