Review: After Yang

Year: 2021 Runtime: 96 minutes Director: Kogonada Writers: Kogonada, based on a short story by Alexander Weinstein Cast: Colin Farrell, Jodie Turner-Smith, Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja, Justin Min, Ritchie Coster, Clifton Collins, Jr., Haley Lu Richardson By Joan Amenn “After Yang” (2021) is a subtle, quiet little science-fiction film that has a plot as open to rumination and interpretation as a summer knit sweater is open … Continue reading Review: After Yang

Review: The Gentlemen (2020)

With “The Gentleman” (2020), Guy Ritchie attempts to prove that he’s still the king of British gangster films, but he falls a bit short. It’s certainly an entertaining romp as a myriad of charming and talented actors get into all sorts of scrapes while trying to pass a booming marijuana business into different hands. Despite the film’s strong points, it lacks cohesion and the treatment of its only central female character is abysmal.  Continue reading Review: The Gentlemen (2020)

ITOL Top 50 Films of the Decade, Entry No. 46: The Beguiled

Sofia Coppola’s American Southern Gothic film, “The Beguiled” (2017), is an atmospheric drama that takes place at a girls’ school in Virginia in 1864. The American Civil War rages around the house, ever-present despite the lack of action. The film features a trio of talented blonde women — Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, and Elle Fanning — in addition to Colin Farrell. While it’s not the masterpiece that some of Coppola’s other films like “Marie Antoinette” (2006) or “The Virgin Suicides” (1999) are, it’s a moving and aesthetically beautiful portrait of women in wartime. Continue reading ITOL Top 50 Films of the Decade, Entry No. 46: The Beguiled