Film-Forward

Satire

The Great Beauty

Directed by Paolo Sorrentino Produced by Nicola Giuliano & Francesca Cima Written by Sorrentino & Umberto Contarello Released by Janus Films Italian with English subtitles Italy/France. 142 min. Not rated With Toni Servillo, Carlo Verdone, Sabrina Ferilli, Carlo Buccirosso, Iaia Forte, Pamela Villoresi, Galatea Ranzi, Massimo De Francovich, Roberto Herlitzka & Isabella Ferrari A beguiling […]

The Wolf of Wall Street

Directed by Martin Scorsese Produced by Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, Riza Aziz, Emma Tillinger Koskoff, and Joey McFarland Written by Terence Winter, from the book by Jordan Belfort Released by Paramount Pictures USA. 179 min. Rated R (and how!) With Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Rob Reiner, Jon Favreau, Spike Jonze, Kyle Chandler, Jon Bernthal, […]

Cockneys vs. Zombies

Directed by Matthias Hoene Written by James Moran & Lucas Roche Produced by James Harris Released by Shout Factory UK. 88 min. Not rated With Harry Treadaway, Michelle Ryan, Alan Ford, Ashley Thomas, Honor Blackman, Rasmus Hardiker & Georgia King From years back, you might remember a little movie called Shaun of the Dead, where […]

Moon Man

Written, Produced & Directed by Stephan Schesch, based on the picture book by Tomi Ungerer Released by Tribeca Film France/German/Ireland. 96 min. Not rated More than four decades after the 1966 publication of Moon Man, a children’s tale by author/illustrator Tomi Ungerer, Stephan Schesch brings this simple story to life through animation. Maintaining the simplicity […]

The Tribeca Grindhouse

This year at the Tribeca film festival, now in its 12th year, films from all over the world included some by major names (Richard Linklater’s Before Midnight and David Gordon Green’s Prince Avalanche) and newcomers trying to make their mark, not to mention the countless documentaries and short films. But not to be overlooked amid […]

Reality

Directed by Matteo Garrone Produced by Domenico Procacci & Garrone Written by Maurizio Braucci, Ugo Chiti, Garrone & Massimo Gaudioso, based on a story by Garrone & Gaudioso Released by Oscilloscope Laboratories Italian, with English subtitles Italy/France. 115 min. Not rated With Aniello Arena, Loredana Simioli, Nando Paone, Graziella Marina, Nello Iorio, Raffaele Ferrante & […]

Spring Breakers

Written & Directed by Harmony Korine Produced by Chris Hanley, Jordan Gertner, David Zander & Charles-Marie Anthonioz Released by A24 USA. 94 min. Rated R With Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez, Ashley Benson, Rachel Korine, James Franco & Gucci Mane A quartet of not-so-innocent undergraduates plans a much-desired sojourn away from their uninspired middle-American liberal arts […]

Cosmopolis

Written & Directed by David Cronenberg, based on Don DeLillo’s novel Produced by Paulo Branco & Martin Katz Released by Entertainment One France/Canada/Portugal/Italy. 109 min. Rated R With: Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, Samantha Morton, Sarah Gadon, Mathieu Amalric, Jay Baruchel, Kevin Durand & Paul Giamatti I almost always fall into the “what I see is […]

Where Do We Go Now?

Directed by Nadine Labaki   Produced by Anne-Dominique Toussaint   Written by Labaki, Jihad Hojeily & Rodney Al Haddad Released by Sony Pictures Classics France/Lebanon/Egypt/Italy. 100 min. Rated PG-13  English, Arabic & Russian with English subtitles With Labaki, Claude Baz Moussawbaa, Julien Farhat, Yvonne Maalouf, Oxana Chihane  Where Do We Go Now? is about as feel-good a […]