Opens December 25th! THE GUARDIAN: The first trailer for Phantom Thread, Daniel Day-Lewis’s final film before retirement, has been unveiled. Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, the film stars the acclaimed actor as Reynolds Woodcock, a renowned dressmaker who enters into a complex relationship with a strong-willed woman (Vicky Krieps) in 1950s post-war London. It’s the second collaboration between Day-Lewis and Anderson, following 2008’s oil-boom drama There Will Be Blood. As with that film, the music for Phantom Thread has been composed by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, who also provided the score for Anderson’s films The Master and Inherent Vice. MORE

LOVING VINCENT (Dir. by Dorota Kobiela & Hugh Welchman, 94 min., USA, 2017) BY CHRISTOPHER MALENEY FILM CRITIC Vincent van Gogh is one of the most important modern artists, and one of the most enigmatic. Almost everyone has seen The Starry Night, his most iconic work. In monetary terms, his Portrait of Dr. Gachet is worth more than $82 million. There are museums, books, articles, whole careers dedicated to the study, analysis and display of his works. His use of color and form revolutionized the way artists perceive and portray the world. What is most interesting to a layman, however, […]

HUMAN FLOW (Directed by Ai WeiWei, 140 minutes, Germany, 2017) BY DANIEL PATRICK WARD Human Flow director Ai WeiWei often presents the observer with a simple, yet sharp image in his art that forces us to see beyond just the physical scope of the piece itself. As a globally-renowned Chinese dissident and outspoken critic of his country’s government, he certainly fears no boundary when creating art that purposefully draws attention to the many crises affecting humanity across the globe. In Human Flow, Ai tasks himself with capturing our planet’s refugee crisis, which affects over 65 million people, in such a […]

  BY CHRISTOPHER MALENEY FILM CRITIC The Philadelphia Film Society’s 26th annual Philadelphia Film Festival, which runs from October 19th to the 29th, is an intriguing blend of movies old and new, independent and mainstream, domestic and imported. This year the festival will honor the memory of renowned director Jonathan Demme — always a friend of Philadelphia — with screenings of the three movies he made here: Philadelphia, Beloved and Neil Young Trunk Show. On Thursday night, Bruce Willis will be on hand to accept the second annual Lumiere Award, named in honor of the first filmmakers Auguste and Louise […]

PROF. MARSTON & THE WONDER WOMEN (Dir, by Angela Robinson, 108 min.) BY CHRISTOPHER MALENEY FILM CRITIC Superhero origin stories are incredibly tangled, and the excessive repetition of endless reboots often only complicates that fact. Almost every re-telling of Batman or Spiderman, to name but two, has taken the liberty of tweaking their origin to fit a particular narrative. Professor Marston and the Wonder Women tells a different sort of superhero origin story. The film answers the question of how a badass, BDSM goddess like the Golden Age Wonder Woman come about? Was it from the sick mind of a sex fiend […]

There are seven. Yes, seven. PREVIOUSLY: Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, is without a doubt, one of the most visionary and influential science-fiction films ever created. Set in 2019 and released in 1982, Scott’s film uncannily predicted our current age some 35 years ago. While some aspects of the film’s vision of the future — flying cars, police ziggurats and android slaves known as replicants hunted down by bounty hunters known as Blade Runners once they reach their expiration date — still seem a ways off, others — the domination of humanity by a corporate technocracy, the privatization of executive and […]

BLADE RUNNER (directed by Denis Villeneuve, 163 minutes, 2017, USA) BY CHRISTOPHER MALENEY FILM CRITIC Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, is without a doubt, one of the most visionary and influential science-fiction films ever created. Set in 2019 and released in 1982, Scott’s film uncannily predicted our current age some 35 years ago. While some aspects of the film’s vision of the future — flying cars, police ziggurats and android slaves known as replicants hunted down by bounty hunters known as Blade Runners once they reach their expiration date — still seem a ways off, others — the domination of humanity […]

BLADE RUNNER 2049 (Dir. by Denis Villeneuve, 163 minutes, U.S., 2017) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Right off the bat, let’s say I’m relieved this didn’t turn out to be the wrong-headed, half-assed mess that was so easy to imagine. There’s a lot to digest but Blade Runner 2049 feels like a real film, not some sputtering, franchise-launching, million cook stew. Thirty-five years is an awful long time to wait before returning to a story, but director Denis Villeneuve has crafted a sequel that organically conjures the universe created by Ridley Scott although its ultimate destination takes us a little […]

BATTLE OF THE SEXES (Dir. by Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris, 121 min., 2017, USA) BY CHRISTOPHER MALENEY FILM CRITIC We have a tendency as humans to build up people and events with layers of symbolic meaning until they come to stand for something far greater than perhaps originally intended. Barack Obama seemed for a while like not another president, but the indicator of a post-racial age. Moonlight’s win over La La Land was touted by some as the redemption of the movie academy’s general bigotry. While these narratives are often fabricated to make money or shift public opinion, they […]

VICTORIA & ABDUL (Directed by Steven Frears, 152 minutes, 2017, USA) BY CHRISTOPHER MALENEY FILM CRITIC Because I am a son of Ireland, Queen Victoria was never my favorite historical figure. Her reign brought hard times for Ireland, as well as many other countries around the world. The Victorian era included the annexation of then-Zululand and India, the transportation of thousands to Australia, two horrible conflicts in Crimea and South Africa, the repression of sexual liberties, the scramble for Africa, and more. But how responsible was the Queen for the actions of her state? If she was even aware, can […]

WIND RIVER (Directed by Taylor Sheridan, USA, 2017, 107 minutes) BY CHRISTOPHER MALENEY FILM CRITIC In the more militaristic branches of American culture, there is a belief that society can be broken down into three categories of people: sheep, sheepdogs, and wolves. The sheep are ordinary people who go about their lives with no understanding for the world’s dangers. The wolves are anyone who preys on the weak and takes whatever they want. The only line of defense between the sheep and the wolves are the sheepdogs, protectors of the flock who tirelessly hunt down bad guys and never ask […]

LOGAN LUCKY (Directed by Steven Soderberg, USA, 118 minutes) BY CHRISTOPHER MALENEY FILM CRITIC Everyone loves a good heist movie. Whether the planning is minutely perfect or rather haphazard, we dole out mass amounts of money to see them go down on screen. Taking other people’s money is an American pastime, and heroes from Robin Hood to Danny Ocean have provided smash hits for box-offices almost everywhere. Sometimes we love our righteous liberators of wealth, but sometimes we just like to see a clever hero tweak the nose of someone richer. Logan Lucky brings a hilarious, fresh take to take […]

It (2017, directed by Andrew Muschietti, 135 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC This week the movie industry bemoaned there limpest summer ever, hopefully giving some studio honchos a moment to rethink the trend of larding up what was once a season of innovation and fresh ideas with a seemingly endless string of sequels, remakes, franchises and corny old super heroes. The fall trend of Oscar-worthy releases might relieve us a bit yet one of the most-hyped films of the early fall season is another Hollywood no-brainer: an adaptation of horror icon Stephen King’s 1986 novel, It, previously brought […]