On the road again--and again
HollywoodIn Chloé Zhao's gorgeous "Nomadland," a woman in her 60s, played with gusto and intimations of grief by Frances McDormand, joins a transient population of older and just plain old…
Chillingly relevant American history from half a century ago
HollywoodIn Shaka King's remarkable "Judas and the Black Messiah," Fred Hampton and the Chicago Black Panthers struggle against racism in the late 1960's, unaware that the FBI has planted an…
Previewing the Pandemic
Hollywood"Little Fish" finished shooting many months before Covid-19 hit, but it gets some things right and other things very right, even though the virus in the movie attacks your memory…
A deep dig into the distant past
HollywoodSutton Hoo, in the English countryside in Suffolk, was the site of one of the most spectacular archaeological finds of the 20th century.
The beguiling charms of "Our Friend"
HollywoodFlawlessly acted by Dakota Johnson, Casey Affleck and Jason Segel, and beautifully directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, this movie about friendship and cancer--in that order--is funny…
Society as a rooster coop
HollywoodThat's how the hero of "The White Tiger" views his native India. The way you'll view the film is with rapt attention and great delight. It's really terrific.
Brightening the Autism Spectrum
HollywoodA documentary called "The Reason I Jump" is a stirring new addition to the movie genre--best exemplified by "The Miracle Worker"--about disabled people who can't express what they're…
The Meaning of the Blues
Hollywood"Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" stars Viola Davis as the great blues singer of the title and Chadwick Boseman, brilliant in his final performance as the cornetist in a quartet that…