This look at one of Broadway’s most successful, beloved and enduring musicals, as well as the silver-screen spawn helmed by (Norman Jewison) is concise, yet compendious in how a story steeped in religious tradition could be met with such enthusiasm. Max Lewkowicz non-fiction: Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles ages behind the original Broadway production in […]
Reviews
Aquarela
A raw, majestic beauty permeates this Eco-minded documentary from Russian native Viktor Kossakovski (in HD and shot in 96 frames/second through shown mostly in 48 in giant-screen venues). Aquarela has a sweeping raptness about how water makes its presence in nature from the deepest lake in the World. Russia’s Lake Baikal, to Greenland, Venezuela, and […]
The Nightingale
The horrors of British colonialism in Tasmania circa early 19 Century is on full, hard-to-stomach display in the new film from the maker of The Babadook. Jennifer Kent brings a frightening sense of inhumanity almost from the outset in The Nightingale which stars Aisling Franciosi (crooning from servitude initially) and Sam Claflin with graphic violence […]
Official Secrets
The new political melodrama starring Keira Knightley (Collateral Beauty) as a British surveillance agency translator whistleblower gets caught up in its languor and excesses to try and make an earnest tale of injustice taut and vital. Official Secrets comes from Gavin Hood (who co-writes) and can’t untangle the politics and personal when it comes to […]
After the Wedding
A retooling of a 2007 Susanne Bier Danish film by Bart Freundlich has two formidable leads in his wife Julianne Moore and Michelle Williams going for it. Yet for what the writer/director does in terms of casting and production refinement renders an underwhelming, unconvincing melodrama. One that needed more gritty textures with its shifting emotional […]