Search for Light

Feature film biographies like Jackie inhabit difficult terrain. They are servants to two masters: the historical record and the needs of artistry. From time-to-time, a great one like Patton or Lincoln comes along but most are run-of-the-mill affairs ...

It’s not hard to understand how something like Jojo Rabbit might divide audiences. Comedies about Hitler, the Holocaust, and the Third Reich can be difficult to sell, even if there’s an underlying seriousness to the subject matter. Writer/...

Juno may well be 2007's "Little Film That Could." You know the category - there's one every year. Last year's entry was Little Miss Sunshine. Word-of-mouth for Juno has been building since its World Premiere at the Telluride Film Festival in ear...

To date, The Favourite ranks as the nearest Yorgos Lanthimos has come to making something easily accessible to mainstream movie-goers. Poor Things comes in a close second, despite its Frankenstein­-inspired weirdness. But, with Kinds of Kindness,...

The smart romantic comedy occurs so infrequently that it has obtained an almost mythical status, sort of like Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy. In the subgenre of gay and lesbian romantic comedies, intelligence is even rarer. Since the ratio of goo...

The Last King of Scotland, in addition to having one of the most misleading titles of any movie to open this Oscar season, could also be 2006's Hotel Rwanda. Like last year's sadly overlooked feature, this one peers into another troubled African na...

The Light between Oceans is unquestionably a tear-jerker. As the film draws to its bittersweet conclusion, dry eyes will be few and far between. But, as manipulative as it is, the narrative also poses its share of intriguing philosophical questions. ...

The Lighthouse is an unconventional thriller that combines claustrophobic elements such as those found in submarine movies with the isolation aspects of productions like Cast Away. While exploring the strained interpersonal relationship betwee...

The Lighthouse starts out as a moody, introspective exploration of loneliness and interpersonal communication and develops into an existential horror movie. Although I don’t think the ending quite works, the film grows more unsettling as it ...