Ritz 5
Venue archive / 13 posts

Oppenheimer

The Starling Girl

The Banshees of Inisherin

Licorice Pizza

Lamb

Summer of Soul (...or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)

Parasite

The Shape of Water
A sweet fairy tale, easily the best of the small handful of Guillermo del Toro films I’ve seen. My one gripe is that it relies so heavily on the (strong) appeal of Sally Hawkins’ and Richard Jenkins’ performances that the film sags when they’re not onscreen. Michael Shannon is a serviceable villain, but his contours aren’t nuanced or idiosyncratic enough to justify the amount of attention del Toro lavishes on him.

A Ghost Story

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
A technically adroit series of carefully scripted temper tantrums meant to embody the struggle of making capital “A” Art, Birdman pays lip service to the nuance that accompanies authenticity, but it tends to make its points as loudly as possible. This is probably about as good as overwrought showbiz navel gazing gets, and it’s still pretty off-putting.

Dallas Buyers Club
McConaughey is excellent, but the redemption story is pretty by-the-numbers, and is ultimately overpowered by a rather shrill anti-FDA polemic.

The Way Way Back
