It begins with a piano, still waterlogged and soggy long after drowning in the tsunami that washed away large swaths of Fukushima, Japan in March 2011. For years it sat forgotten in its makeshift mausoleum, a high school speedily evacuated…
Tribeca 2018 Movie Review: Smuggling Hendrix
How far would you go for your dog? To the end of the neighborhood? To the ends of the earth? Or how about to the ends of internationally recognized territory as detailed by the United Nations and the European Union?…
Tribeca 2018 Movie Review: Song of Back and Neck
There are really two movies trapped inside Paul Lieberstein’s Song of Back and Neck. Both are about healing, the one literal, the other figurative. One is a charming romantic comedy with beats you could hit in your sleep. The other…
Tribeca 2018 Movie Review: Yellow is Forbidden
What does Guo Pei want? This is the question lurking at the heart of Pietra Brettkelly’s new documentary on the exacting Chinese fashion designer who first skyrocketed into the public eye after designing Rihanna’s infamous canary yellow dress to the…
Traffik Movie Review: A grindhouse feature with a message
There’s something naturally fun about a movie whose plot revolves around a couple being hounded by small-town hoodlums, whether they be backwater hillbillies (like Backcountry or Wrong Turn) or Satanists (like Race With the Devil). Deon Taylor’s Traffik is a…
Tribeca 2018 Movie Review: Cargo
Martin Freeman made his career playing affable fish-out-of-water—friendly, helpful fellows, but basically audience proxies replicating the viewer’s incredulity at outlandish people and things. He’s the perpetual straight man, the sounding board against which The Office’s David Brent and Sherlock’s eponymous…
Chappaquiddick Review: Kennedy Scandal Given New Light
In an era where politics and celebrity are intertwined, it’s still interesting to be reminded how fascinated America was with the Kennedys. Maybe it was the magnetic personalities of John and Bobby that made them seem more like everyday people…