At the time of this writing, director Todd Phillips’s Joker is the highest grossing R-rated film of all time, has earned two Golden Globe wins for Best Actor in A Drama Motion Picture and Original Score with two individual nominations… Read More ›
Josh Pais
Despite the trappings of a thoughtful noir, Edward Norton’s “Motherless Brooklyn” adaptation doesn’t seem to coalesce.
The cinematic adaptation of Jonathan Lethem’s book Motherless Brooklyn by Edward Norton (Keeping the Faith) possesses all the hallmarks of a great noir: mystery, a dame in trouble, and a gumshoe in over his head. When you add in a… Read More ›
“Motherless Brooklyn” possesses a strong statement on gentrification, which is mired by cliché noir tropes and bland filmmaking. [Film Fest 919]
Being from Durham, North Carolina, I have seen a lot of changes happen in my city over the last few years. Durham kept a large, mostly black, working-class population due to the employment of so many citizens at the tobacco… Read More ›
“Joker” is an absolute mind-screw in the best and worst ways.
Since director Todd Phillips’s Joker premiered at the 76th Venice Film Festival in August 2019, it’s been mired in controversy. Some hailed the film as an absolute masterpiece of filming, evoking elements of director Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver. Others called… Read More ›