An Older, Wiser Michael Moore Invades Europe

“I’ve turned into this kind of crazy optimist,” Michael Moore admits in his new documentary Where to Invade Next, his first film in six years. At 61, the gadfly savant has mellowed. Instead of charging into rooms, he shuffles, the American flag wrapped around his shoulders like a grandmother’s shawl…

Classic Films Showing in Miami in February

Another month has passed and another arrived. Cinema remains much the same. Most of what is new in theaters this month isn’t worth your time, and with Oscar-nominated films being replayed to death, it’s better to turn to the classics. Here’s what’s showing in Miami this month: Christine Vachon and…

The 10 Sundance Movies to Watch for in 2016

The biggest story at this year’s Sundance Film Festival was the record-breaking bidding war for The Birth of a Nation, a prestige biopic about rebellious slave Nat Turner. When Fox Searchlight snatched it for $17.5 million — $5 million more than any other flick in the festival’s history — their…

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Only Fitfully Comes to Life

You’re probably right if you think you might get a couple laughs out of a movie titled Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. You’re also right if you’ve guessed that this gung-ho but cruddy-looking mashup fails from A to Z: It’s neither good Austen nor good zombie flick. But in those…

The Coens’ Hollywood Farce Hail, Caesar! Flames Out

A kick for those who’ve distractedly thumbed through Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon, Joel and Ethan Coen’s bustling comedy Hail, Caesar! looks back to the waning days of moviedom’s golden age: specifically, to 1951, when big-studio fixers were still tidying up the messes left by the talent (scrubbing now done by…

Garrel’s In the Shadow of Women Illuminates a Love Triangle

Few filmmakers explore the mysteries of coupledom as touchingly as Philippe Garrel, who specializes in mapping out romantic triangles (whether acute, obtuse or oblique). The rich enigmas of his latest movie, about a husband and wife, both in their forties and each unfaithful to the other, start with its evocative…

Kung Fu Panda 3 Insists That Wars Do Make One Great

There’s essentially one joke in the Kung-Fu Panda movies. A ridiculous, adorable creature executes some extravagant action-flick flourish — vaulting over roofs, dropping a bad guy, striking a poster-perfect superhero pose. Then the battle music fades and that adorable creature breaks badass character to remind us it’s totally relatable, even…

Son of Saul Tracks One Cog in the Death Camps’ Machine

What are the limits of representation? That’s a moral question that hovers over any depiction of the Final Solution, and it’s not considered lightly by László Nemes’ Son of Saul, which turns unimaginable horrors into tangible ones. By venturing inside the death factory of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Nemes risks greeting obscenity with…

I Laughed at Dirty Grandpa, AMA

Call it a dissenting opinion if you must, but Dirty Grandpa has sporadic moments of hilarity: the spontaneous “USA! USA!” chant that erupts after an out-of-his-mind Zac Efron announces to spring breakers that he’s just unknowingly smoked crack, or Aubrey Plaza commanding as foreplay that Robert De Niro, as the…