Film-Forward

Top Picks

St. Vincent

Written and Directed by Theodore Melfi Produced by Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping, Melfi and Fred Roos Released by the Weinstein Company USA. 102 min. Rated PG-13 With Bill Murray, Melissa McCarthy, Naomi Watts, Chris O’Dowd, Terrence Howard and Jaeden Lieberher In the past five years or so, Bill Murray has seemingly gotten bigger and more […]

Tracks

Directed by John Curran Produced by Emile Sherman and Iain Canning Written by Marion Nelson, based on the memoir by Robyn Davidson and inspired by the photographs of Rick Smolan in From Alice to Ocean Released by the Weinstein Company Australia. 102 min. Rated PG-13 With Mia Wasikowska, Adam Driver, Rainer Bock, Rolley Mintuma, John […]

Fishing Without Nets

Directed by Cutter Hodierne Somali, with English subtitles Released by Vice Films USA/Kenya/Somalia. 110 min. Rated R Fishing Without Nets is a beautifully shot, intelligent, and engaging, if somewhat clichéd and obvious, story about a group of Somali pirates who capture a cargo ship. It’s kind of a reverse mirror of Captain Phillips. Or Captain […]

Keep On Keepin’ On

Directed by Alan Hicks Written by Hicks and Davis Coombe Produced by Quincy Jones and Paula DuPre’ Pesmen Released by Radius/The Weinstein Company USA. 86 min. Rated R Keep On Keepin’ On intimately catches lightning in a bottle, for what is usually only talked about but rarely seen on film: how a dedicated mentor can […]

Pride

Directed by Matthew Warchus Written by Stephen Beresford Produced by David Livingstone Released by CBS Films UK. 120 min. Rated R With Bill Nighy, Imelda Stanton, Dominic West, Paddy Considine, George MacKay, Joseph Gilgun, Andrew Scott, Ben Schnetzer, Faye Marsay, Liz White, Menna Trussler, Lisa Palfrey, Freddie Fox, and Jessica Gunning With each passing year, […]

The Skeleton Twins

Directed by Craig Johnson Produced by Stephanie Langhoff, Jennifer Lee and Jacob Pechenik Written by Johnson and Mark Heyman Released by Roadside Attractions USA. 92 min. Rated R With Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, Luke Wilson, Ty Burrell, Boyd Holbrook and Joanna Gleason Actors Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader have habitually epitomized the lofty standards of […]

Wetlands

Directed by David Wnendt Written by Claus Falkenberg and Wnendt, based on the novel by Charlotte Roche Produced by Peter Rommel Released by Strand Releasing German with English subtitles German. 109 min. Not rated With Carla Juri, Christoph Letkowski, Meret Becker, and Axel Milberg The shock value of Wetlands far surpasses anything I’ve seen in […]

The Green Prince

Written and Directed by Nadav Schirman, based on the memoir Son of Hamas by Mosab Hassan Yousef Produced by Schirman, John Battsek and Simon Chinn Released by Music Box Films Germany/Israel/UK. 101 min. Rated PG-13 This summer’s front page photographs from Gaza of masked Hamas gunmen executing accused collaborators with Israel gives The Green Prince […]

Born to Fly

Directed by Catherine Gund Produced by Gund and Tanya Salvaratnam USA. 82 min. Not rated This look at the life and work of choreographer Elizabeth Streb features some genuinely jaw-dropping moments. They are compiled from a career spent pushing the limits of motion in search of a kind of human flight. Of course, the first […]