Sometimes the mezzobrow film-culture deadlands of the 1980s looked like it was populated almost entirely by opal-eyed European children, spying on hayloft sex and weathering the neglect of peasant elders. That tame moment found its homogenizable directors, particularly Scandinavian teddy bears, imported to Hollywood. Such was the fate of Bille…
Not a soul in the world who has seen one of Rossy de Palma’s performances will be surprised to know that every ounce of energy and charisma the Spanish actress brings to her work is a part of her natural being. That fact was proven beautifully at Miami Film Festival’s riveting Saturday-night event, An Evening With Rossy de Palma.
With Borscht Diez having just ended and Miami Film Festival in full swing, Miami audiences have enjoyed a full roster of new films to check out. But what about the classics? March offers many.
The movies never get the Midwest right. When, onscreen, have you seen white people at the grocery store mouth that shy, apologetic “oop” noise every time someone walks close enough that they feel they must shift out of the way? Or a father lecturing his children about the greatness of…
For a movie in which a major character’s death is discovered when a giant lizard-monster vomits out his skull, Kong: Skull Island is a surprisingly breezy affair. It’s not so much that the characters or situations are particularly lighthearted. The film offers up plenty of wartime atmosphere and grim backstory,…
Science fiction has gotten so high and mighty on TV that it now can be easy to admire but hard to love. Westworld and Mr. Robot may win Emmys and prompt think-pieces, but their self-reflective chill keeps the audience at arm’s length — few things are as annoying as getting…
In “Women on Top,” the episode of the new Netflix docuseries Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On that screens Tuesday as part of the Miami Film Festival, two women struggle with the conventions of modern pornography from their careers behind the camera. Holly Randall, daughter of the pioneering Playboy photographer Suze Randall, fights to produce glossy, traditional porn shoots on budgets that have been slashed in the wake of free online porn. Erika Lust, faced with a dearth of erotica made with women in mind, makes her own sexy films based on real women’s fantasies.
There is probably no better place for the world premiere of Bahamian filmmaker Kareem J. Mortimer’s latest movie than the Miami Film Festival. With a cast and crew representing an array of islands in the Caribbean, Cargo focuses on an American exile with a gambling addiction in Nassau who takes a job smuggling Haitians to Florida in a desperate act to support his family.
It’s March! Time to celebrate spring by staying inside and watching more TV! National Treasure (Hulu), March 1Originally a UK Channel 4 miniseries, this is a four-hour deep-dive into rape and sexual assault allegations against a beloved celebrity comedian. Sound familiar? I have some apprehension that it’ll try too hard…
Movie actors intend no less than to live forever, a goal that seems likely for the ever-likable, endlessly surprising Bill Paxton, who died last weekend at age 61 from complications following heart surgery. (Too damn soon.) No softie, Paxton created memorable movie villains, including the loves-his-work vampire in Near Dark…
How could this not work? Table 19 boasts the right premise and a top-shelf cast: Anna Kendrick, Stephen Merchant, June Squibb, Craig Robinson and the great Lisa Kudrow as the randos consigned to a wedding reception’s least choice table, the one way in the back by the bathrooms. Mostly strangers…
You think of Richard Gere as the smooth Lothario in American Gigolo or the smooth tycoon in Pretty Woman. As the title character in Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer, Gere is a lot of things, but smooth is not one of them. The movie, which will open the Miami Film Festival this Friday, stars Gere as Norman Oppenheimer, a bumbling Jewish New Yorker with a peanut allergy who is more Larry David than Edward Lewis. The movie walks the line between comedy and drama, mixing in a bit of exploration of Israeli politics. Gere took time out from speaking on behalf of the International Campaign for Tibet to talk to New Times about portraying the ambitious, eccentric Norman, who finds himself causing an international incident.
There’s a reason Zoey Deutch is often “the girl” in comedies. Her face expresses multitudes, and the funny guys need a woman with priceless reactions to sell their punch lines. She’s endured dick jokes for Robert De Niro and Zac Efron in Dirty Grandpa, played oblivious straight woman to the…
Logan is a punch in the gut in all the right ways. Onscreen, the X-Men series has always found ways to morph and expand, from time-traveling fantasy to social allegory to political thriller. And it’s done so as other comic-book franchises have ossified, with the DC movies (foolishly) doubling down…
“A cat meowing at your feet, looking up at you, is life smiling at you,” says one of the interviewees in Kedi, and who am I to argue? Ceyda Torun’s daydream-like documentary explores a subject near and dear to my heart: the street cats of Istanbul, those countless, fearless denizens…
The Miami Film Festival (MIFF), this city’s biggest annual movie event, returns Friday with 131 films, complemented by dozens of parties, talks, and special events. That’s a lot to pack into just ten days. Let New Times’ film critics guide you through this week’s best experiences. Desserts & Directors: MIFF…
It was shock, confusion, and joy as a floppy antenna faltered during Moonlight’s best-picture Oscar win at Liberty City’s block party for the only officially sanctioned Moonlight Oscars viewing party, at the African Heritage Cultural Center.
Everyone knew this year’s best-picture contest at the Oscars came down to two diametrically opposed choices: Moonlight, a coming-of-age tale of a young, gay black man in Miami created by Liberty City natives Tarell Alvin McCraney and Barry Jenkins, and La La Land, a big-budget Hollywood musical about how awesome Hollywood is.
It’s thematically fitting that Henry Phillips’ slight, prickling Punching Henry hits theaters just weeks after The Comedian, a bloated Robert De Niro exercise also about a difficult stand-up comic grinding through bad gigs and insulting meetings with TV suits — and accidentally starring in viral videos. The Comedian was about…
A stylized painting of Woody Allen, a golden gun to his forehead, stares down at Hannah Horvath (Lena Dunham) in the astonishing third episode of Girls’ final season. She’s seated in the study of a best-selling wunderkind novelist, planted in the middle of his sofa while he faces her, coldly,…
The one thing I know for sure is that most Oscar voters don’t care that a film as seemingly pleasant as Damien Chazelle’s modern musical La La Land has proven so divisive. Even as lyrics from “City of Stars” have become inspirational memes, artists like songwriter Elon Rutberg are calling…
If you’ve grown weary of the Don Drapers and Walter Whites of the world, don’t expect James Keziah Delaney to make a strong first impression. Taboo’s antihero, played with signature laconicism by Tom Hardy, is another difficult man for this golden age of TV — and, as fate would have…
