Flicks with The Film Snob

The story of a young girl who is accused of being a witch presents a drily satiric take on the oppression of women in Africa. Filmmaker Rungano Nonyi was born in the central African nation of Zambia, went to Wales with her family when she was a girl, grew up there, and then as a woman returned to the land of her birth to write and direct films. Her first full-length feature is called I Am Not a Wi...

Three boys grow up in the midst of ugly family conflict, in this lyrical evocation of childhood tragedy. When realism comes together with lyricism, you have the makings of a great film. We the Animals , directed by Jeremiah Zagar, manages to achieve that in a tale of three boys growing up in the midst of ugly family strife, adapted by Zagar and Daniel Kitrosser from a novel by Justin Torres. A you...

The story of a young woman’s struggle with her overprotective mother, and her fascination with a woman directing her in an experimental theater group, draws parallels between performance, mental illness, and freedom of identity. A work of art can express many things, and one of the most challenging tasks for an artist is to reflect on the making of art itself—in other words, making art about art....

Robert Greene documents the centenary reenactment of the Bisbee deportation, the infamous rounding up and expulsion of striking copper miners in Bisbee, Arizona, in 1917. In 1917, a tragic and criminal episode in American history occurred in the copper mining town of Bisbee, Arizona. Local miners had recently been organized by the IWW, International Workers of the World, and a strike was called in...

While ostensibly a haunted house mystery, Lenny Abrahamson’s latest film skillfully explores dark places in the psyche. The Little Stranger is what you would call a haunted house mystery, although that description may already give an inaccurate impression of the film. Skillfully adapted for the screen by Lucinda Coxon, from a novel of the same name by Sarah Waters, The Little Stranger is more focu...

Jim McKay’s portrait of Mexican immigrants in Brooklyn who work hard and love playing soccer, is a sweet and satisfying film. A group of Mexican immigrants, as yet undocumented, live together in a crowded apartment in Brooklyn, work hard, and play soccer in an amateur league. This is the premise of En el Séptimo Día , the new film from indie writer/director Jim McKay. In English, the title means “...

Pablo Trapera’s 1999 debut film tells the story of a construction worker, an ordinary member of the working class, to help portray the economic hardships of life in Argentina. Pablo Trapero is one of the four or five most highly acclaimed Argentine film directors. His first film, Crane World, released in 1999, put him on the world map with its almost documentary-style realism to create a portrait...

Ava DuVernay’s 2016 documentary traces the history of incarceration as a tool of white supremacy in America, while Spike Lee’s latest provocation uses the real case of a black cop infiltrating the KKK in the ’70s to show the insidious racism still infecting the nation today. 13th, a 2016 documentary directed by Ava DuVernay, starts with some alarming facts. The U.S., with 5% of the world’s populat...

This 1949 boxing film, made on a modest budget by Robert Wise, is a model of tight storytelling. Boxing films have been a popular genre since the very beginning of motion pictures, and those who like them usually have a favorite. Probably the most acclaimed examples would be Body and Soul from 1947, and Raging Bull from 1980, and they’re both important and deserving films. The best among those I’v...

Bo Burnham’s story of a 13-year-old girl stuck in that weird time in between childhood and adolescence is remarkably compassionate and clear-sighted. There are teen movies, and then there are movies about teens. That’s a distinction that I just made up. My idea is that teen movies are what film companies think will entertain the financially important teenage segment of the mass audience. And their...

Boots Riley’s free-wheeling, surrealistic satire on white supremacy and corporate culture sports a reckless take-no-prisoner s attitude. Sorry to Bother You is the kind of thing you might say when you’re a little afraid that someone might not appreciate what you’re about to ask. It’s also the title of the debut film by the rap artist Boots Riley, who wrote and directed this freewheeling satire on...

Debra Granik’s latest film tells of a father and teenage daughter trying to live in the woods, outside of society, and the challenges to their relationship that arise when authorities discover them. And a new documentary relates the true story of triplets adopted by three separate families, who discovered each other by chance. In the film Leave No Trace, a father and his teenage daughter are livin...

A cab driver, an immigrant from Senegal named Solo, tries to help a taciturn old man who may be planning to kill himself, in this funny and touching 2008 film. For someone who writes about films as I do, there are always cases of movies that fly under the radar, escaping my notice, maybe not even playing locally, but which I eventually encounter by chance and discover as a revelation or a hidden c...

True to its title, this horror film depicts events that are inevitable and unstoppable, coded into the structure of the troubled family at its center.  It may take a while to process your feelings once you’ve seen Hereditary , the scary debut feature from writer-director Ari Aster. A lot of horror movies kind of wink at you in a self-reflexive manner, as if to say, “Isn’t this fun?” Aster doesn’t...

Lucrecia Martel’s latest film is a portrait of colonial futility, in which an 18th century official in an out-of-the-way South American locality struggles to escape, and endure, his plight. Argentine filmmaker Lucrecia Martel has become my favorite living director. That might sound extravagant to say about someone who has only made four features in sixteen years, but every one of her films has bee...

A small town minister suffers a crisis of faith when confronted by one of his parishioners with the question of whether God can forgive the human race for destroying itself. A man of faith is tested to the limit in Paul Schrader’s latest film, First Reformed. Ethan Hawke plays Reverend Stoller, the minister of a Dutch Reformed church in upstate New York that dates back to the 18th century. Very fe...

A couple in the midst of divorce tragically neglect their 12-year-old son, in Andrey Zvyagintsev ‘s portrait of spiritual malaise in today’s Russia. During Russia’s gradual descent back to dictatorship, one prominent film director has unsparingly depicted the spiritual rot in the heart of his country. With five features in fifteen years, Andrey Zvyagintsev has dissected his country’s malaise in st...

A documentary portrait of Ruth Bader Ginsburg reveals the life story of the Supreme Court Justice and her key role in advancing women’s rights in the United States. Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a Supreme Court Justice and an advocate for civil rights, especially the rights of women. She was the second woman ever appointed to the Court. She’s 85 years old, and has in recent times been often on the dissen...

This film features real people playing themselves in a drama about a young rodeo hotshot whose career has been cut short by a head injury, and who must cope with whether he can ever again the one thing he loves the most: ride horses. Sometimes I come across a real treasure by sheer chance. Recently, when the movie I’d gone to see was sold out, I went to another one in the same theater, and discove...

Claire Denis’ new film examines the cycle of hope, expectation and disappointment in the life of a woman looking for the right man. The desire for a loving relationship takes many forms in the latest film from veteran French director Claire Denis, Let the Sunshine In . Juliette Binoche plays Isabelle, an abstract painter living in Paris, whom we eventually discover is divorced and has a young daug...

Youssef Chahine’s groundbreaking 1958 film dealt frankly with sexual issues, which did not please Egyptian audiences at the time, but it is now considered a classic of world cinema. Egypt has the largest film industry in the Arab world. There have been movies produced in Egypt, mostly in Cairo, since the early silent era. There’s a period known as the “golden age” of Egyptian cinema that started i...

Joaquin Phoenix plays a vigilante for hire who has been damaged by his own traumatic experiences, in the fourth feature from Scottish director Lynne Ramsay. You Were Never Really Here. That’s a strange and unsettling title for a film. But it perfectly fits this new picture, the fourth feature from Scottish director Lynne Ramsay. It stars Joaquin Phoenix, well known for immersing himself in a role...

Wes Anderson brings his unique style and sensibility to his second foray into stop-motion animation, a love letter to Japanese film about a city that banishes its dogs to an island wasteland. I’ve remarked more than once, here on the show, on the unique qualities that director Wes Anderson brings to his films. He has a visual style which is instantly recognizable as his alone: intricate toy-like s...

Written and directed by native Australians, a new film provides a glimpse into the painful history of Australia’s brutal treatment of its original native population. Sweet Country is a tough, complex Australian film that provides a glimpse into the painful history of that nations’s brutal treatment of its original native population. Significantly, the movie was written and directed by native Austr...

Two wild rides. Good Time: about a young criminal (Robert Pattinson) frantically trying to spring his brother from custody. And Game Night: a comedy in which a game-loving couple are caught up in a kidnapping that turns out to be real. I often hear people make the mistake of assuming that the main character of a movie should be likeable or sympathetic. This idea is a hold-over from the Hollywood s...