Joseph PrywellerJan 316 minONE 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 174 minPIECES 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 45 minMANK: 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 28, 20205 minFIRST 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 minMA 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 13, 20205 minSOUND 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 minMANGROVE: 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 full-fight-m...
Joseph PrywellerNov 15, 20205 minTHE 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 inc...
Joseph PrywellerNov 9, 20204 minTHe 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 att...
Joseph PrywellerOct 30, 20205 minNEVER 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 simplicit...
Joseph PrywellerJul 26, 20204 minTHE 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...
Joseph PrywellerJul 18, 20205 minSHIRLEY: THE HAUNTING OF JACKSON'S HOUSEShirley Jackson was known to get under the skin. Her most famous work, the short story "The Lottery," concerned a women who wakes to the ...
Joseph PrywellerJul 12, 20205 minDA 5 BLOODS: SPIKE LEE'S RUMBLE IN THE JUNGLEWhat's going on? With Marvin Gaye's protest music providing the jolting backdrop for Spike Lee's latest joint, Da 5 Bloods, the following...
Joseph PrywellerMay 25, 20206 minThe Lessons of Network in a Post-Modern WorldGo ahead, open up the window, stick out your head and say it three times loud: I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore! Does...
Joseph PrywellerMay 10, 20205 minTHE GRADUATE: THE SOUNDS OF LONELY SILENCEIt is a movie about choices, the wrong ones and the right ones and what do when you're not certain which are which. It is a movie about l...
Joseph PrywellerApr 30, 20205 minWHERE HAVE ALL THE GOOD ROCK MOVIES GONE?What's so funny about peace, love, understanding and making a really good rock movie that's not just another easy biography? The former t...
Joseph PrywellerApr 25, 20204 minLEAVE NO TRACE: MOVIES OF ISOLATIONThis occasional series will look at overlooked films on popular streaming services -- Amazon Prime, Hulu and Netflix -- that are well wor...
Joseph PrywellerApr 25, 20204 minTHE FAREWELL: PUT ON A HAPPY FACEThere is delusion that means unnecessarily avoiding confronting a grimmer reality and delusion that is sometimes necessary to survive. Wh...
Joseph PrywellerApr 19, 20204 minMIDSOMMAR: HEALING EQUALS HORRORDepending on your view of the world, Midsommar -- the 2019 horror movie from Ari Aster, who directed the equally sinister Hereditary -- w...
Joseph PrywellerFeb 9, 20205 minPARASITE: LIFE UNDERGROUNDThe division of the classes has been a consistent movie theme since the cinema's early days. Charlie Chaplin's tramp came from those lowe...