Joseph PrywellerJan 31, 20216 min readONE NIGHT IN MIAMI: HOTEL ROOM SHOWDOWNIt certainly wasn't easy. One Night in Miami opens with a montage that shows the highs and lows of the Black experience in America in the...
Joseph PrywellerJan 17, 20214 min readPIECES OF A WOMAN: LIFE AFTER TRAUMAT.S. Eliot once wrote that what we call the beginning is oftentimes the end, while making an end is often a beginning. Pieces of a Woman,...
Joseph PrywellerJan 3, 20215 min readMANK: TINSELTOWN TEARDOWNMank trades in the grandeur and movie-making magic of Old Hollywood in the 1930s for something far more insidious: a look at the smarmy,...
Joseph PrywellerDec 31, 20202 min readA BROKEN NEW YEARLooking out at a discordant world, full of fury, full of wonder, full of enchantment, full of possibility, full of flitting dream, it is...
Joseph PrywellerDec 28, 20205 min readFIRST COW: A WILDERNESS UNBOUNDDirector Kelly Reichardt knows how to shoot nature. Her camera lingers on its many delights in rapturous color: the dew-dripping leaves,...
Joseph PrywellerDec 23, 20206 min readMA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM: LOOKING UP AT THE BLUESIf there's a way to categorize Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, the equal parts audacious and wistful new film streaming on Netflix, it would be...
Joseph PrywellerDec 18, 20202 min readthe highway runsManeuvering the roads, the thoroughfares, the swirl of exhaust from motor vehicles attuned and on guard for speed when it suits them to...
Joseph PrywellerDec 18, 20205 min readCRITICAL GAZEComing to you from the real world, coming to you from ground zero, here in the atmosphere of struggle, of missteps, of hope in the midst...
Joseph PrywellerDec 18, 20206 min readKEY LARGO: A STORM BREWS INSIDE USKey Largo doesn't take long to find its hard noir core. The classic Bogie-Bacall picture from 1948 stashes the main characters in a...
Joseph PrywellerDec 13, 20205 min readSOUND OF METAL: SILENCE AND FURYFrom the blackness of a darkened stage, the spotlight is on the drummer, bare -chested, hands in air, ready to beat his tom-toms with the...
Joseph PrywellerNov 28, 20205 min readMANGROVE: A SENSE OF PLACE LAID TO WASTESteve McQueen, director of the magnetic new film Mangrove, treats injustice as if it were a personal affront to mankind. His...
Joseph PrywellerNov 16, 20206 min readTHE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES: DISILLUSION AND THE RETURNING VETThe war is over in the Pacific. Three servicemen are returning home. They bum a ride together on an Air Force transport plane, sitting in...
Joseph PrywellerNov 15, 20205 min readTHE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7: POLITICS AS THEATERIn The Trial of the Chicago 7, the new film from Aaron Sorkin now playing on Netflix, Abbie Hoffman, one of the defendants accused of...
Joseph PrywellerNov 8, 20204 min readTHe INVISIBLE MAN: TRANSPARENT TERRORSometimes, when it comes to bad relationships, it is not about the lack of love between two people, or lack of chemistry, fidelity or...
Joseph PrywellerOct 29, 20205 min readNEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS: OVERCOMING THE OBSTACLESThere is a scene midway through Eliza Hittman's soul-provoking new movie Never Rarely Sometimes Always that is wrenching in its...
Joseph PrywellerJul 26, 20205 min readDEMOGOGUES AND THE OLD TESTAMENTFor those who believe in peaceable protest and the rights of all people to assemble in a democratic setting, this week’s Torah portion...
Joseph PrywellerJul 26, 20205 min readCRITICISM: LOVE OR THE LACK OF UNDERSTANDING?Who among us can take criticism well? Who among us is that thick-skinned, that mature, that we do not mind a little rebuke, a little...
Joseph PrywellerJul 26, 20202 min readWHAT IS GRACEAre we not full of grace already when we bask in the earth, in what is around us if only it is a street cobbled and pocked by tire...
Joseph PrywellerJul 26, 20202 min readASPHALT ANIMALSNavigating the roads, the thoroughfares, the swirl of exhaust from motor vehicles tuned and on guard for speed when it suits them to fly...
Joseph PrywellerJul 26, 20204 min readTHE VAST OF NIGHT: LOW BUDGET, HIGH CHILLSWhen we discuss supernatural thrillers in our modern age, we typically talk about the special effects, the chills coming from the ability...
